Un Amore Ansioso
by carolinemcw
Summary: Neither Lena nor Derek were expecting this, nor did they want it to happen. It might have been the last thing on their minds, but nonetheless, it finds them and eats them whole. They may not be ready for it, but they can't stop it. Through each other, they find out what living really is and that never let your past affect your future.
1. Chapter 1

Lena

It was late May when I first met Derek. He was standing on the curb right outside the school, next to me. He looked familiar to me, but I really couldn't put his name to his ruggedly handsome face. I was facing the drop off/pick up circle waiting for Bella Luca, my older sister, to pick me up, while he was facing the school building, obviously waiting for someone. I kept making glances over at him and he just stood there, looking at the building without moving a muscle, or even blinking. I finally mustered the courage to say something to him.

"Who are you waiting for?" I asked.

He looked at me, a little startled that I had said anything at all since it he was perfectly content without there being a conversation between us. "Scott McCall," he replied. "I have been trying to reach him all day and I figured, this was probably the best way to get him now." He paused for a bit and I nodded at him. "Do you know where he might be? You look to be about his age."

"He was in my physics class just before, I think he and Stiles went out to the field to practice."

"Thanks," he said avoiding looking at me.

"My name is Carolena," I yelled after him.

"What?"

"I said, my name is Carolena, Carolena Perrini. M people just call me Lena for short though."

I held out my hand for a handshake with him, he grabbed it saying, "I'm Derek Hale." _Derek Hale, that's how I know him, his family was burned in a house fire years back. He was just a year or two younger than Bella Luca._ As we shook hands, there was something obviously there on my side, but I didn't know if he felt the same. We stand there for a while, just holding hands now, not noticing that it looks odd to the people around us and we are finally interrupted when BellaLuca honks her horn at me. I look over at her car as she is waving for me to get in her car, then I glance back towards Derek and he's gone, just like that.

I get into Bella Luca's car and she, of course, starts questioning about why I was just talking to Derek Hale. She told me he was an odd kid in high school and not to get tangled up with him. I just nod and stare out the window, because what neither of us knew at that point was that I was already tangled up with him.

Bella Luca raised me after both of my parents had died, leaving me an orphan, since I was under eighteen. Luckily, the day my mother died was just a few weeks before Bella Luca's eighteenth birthday, so we didn't have to go into foster care, we just went to live with our aunt for a little while. I never really got to know my parents very well since I was only seven when my mother died and three when my father died. She tells me that they used to speak in Italian to each other and sing an old Italian family lullaby to us each night before bed. She speaks of how handsome our dad was and how beautiful our mom was. She always told me that I am a mini version of our mother, but I wouldn't know.

"Lena, we're here. I'll be back to pick you up at 5:30, okay?"

"Fine," I say closing the car door. I hate when she says she'll pick me up because I have had my license for over a year and she her only argument that I can't drive is because she has to go to work to provide for us, while I just go to school and dance.

I open the doors to the health center and smell the oh so familiar smell of athletic wear, sports drinks, and sweat. I headed downstairs to where the dance studio was located. I loved where it was, right next to the gym, where fit men with their shirts off worked out for hours. The wall between the dance studio and gym are glass, so we are able to see them, and they are able to see us. It's nice to be getting checked out by hot guys while you look like an ugly beast.

I walk into the studio and everyone is pinning their hair up in big sock buns so hair doesn't fall in their faces. I set my bag down and gather all my hair into a messy bun instead. All the girls are excited to put the finishing touches on our latest ballet piece and for the dress rehearsal the next week. I got a major solo in the dance with many complicated steps and involves having a limber body, and my body has never been or ever will be flexible. There was a lot of pressure being put on me at this time, finals were coming up for my sophomore year and Bella Luca wanted me to do above and beyond average in school, the dance solo, and it always seemed like there was a competition between Lydia, Allison, and me to see who can get a hot boyfriend first.

Dance normally took my mind off of all of that, but today with the pressure for me to perfect every step in the dance, it wasn't enjoyable at all. I was glad to get out of the room with all the girls in their leotards and tutus. I ran out of the class, and while doing that, I ran into someone. Someone hard. Someone who I was quite sure I broke the left side of my face on their chest. I look up to see Derek Hale looking down at me.

"So, we meet again, Lena." He smiles at me, and I get a feeling he doesn't smile often. I start to forget how to breathe.


	2. Chapter 2

Derek

Lena ran right into me coming out of the dance studio. She was such a small girl, probably only 5' 4" and just her face when she figured out it was me she ran into made me smile. She was a cute girl with small facial features, but they were dark, as if she was hiding something from all the world. Her big dark brown eyes were staring up into mine and I realized I was still smiling, which must have scared the crap out of her because it scared the crap out of me.

"What are you doing here?" she questioned me.

"I am obviously here for the girls' ballet class, but it seems to be over already, so I think I'm just going to go to the gym. I would just work out at home, but I think my problems nowadays require me to push myself to my limits." She laughed at me, which made me smile again. I had to get out of this situation so I didn't scare myself too much. I'm an alpha werewolf, I'm not a comedian that makes girls who are many years younger than I am laugh. I need to get in shape to protect myself and the other people of Beacon Hills, I cannot waste time talking to a little Italian girl.

"I should probably go," I say to her.

"I should too, my sister is waiting for me outside," and just like that, we part from each other and go our separate ways.

The whole time I was in the gym, I couldn't stop thinking about her laugh and her smile and her eyes. They were all so gentle, but all had an under layer to them, and I wanted to know what that under layer was. I made up my mind, I was going to find her again. This girl was a mystery to me. She was intriguing and no one has ever had this effect on me in my life, ever. I've always been hard on the outside so nothing could hurt me on the inside, but somehow just by saying "Who are you looking for?" she got in.

After a while of this thinking, I finally realize that my treadmill isn't even on and that I was just standing there, leaning up against the rail. All around the gym, there are other men staring at me. They were scrawny men, all probably have never seen the little glimpse of a bicep on their arm, so I take off my shirt and they all turn away. _That's what I thought, you turn away, I'm the alpha in this town._

Between thinking about Lena, and working out, it was hard to keep from shifting in front of all of these people, my heart rate was getting pretty high. I remembered that this moment right now is why I don't work out in public… I decide it would probably be best to leave now, before anything truly drastic happens. As I'm about to leave the gym, no other than Chris Argent comes waltzing in, just my luck too. He can't really do anything to me in public without the police getting involved, so I just leave, brushing up against his shoulder as I do so, to let him know that this is my territory.

"Derek."

"Mr. Argent."

And with that, I run home. Even though we aren't on terrible terms anymore since Gerard died and since Kate broke nearly every single one of their rules of killing my kind, there's still something about him that I can't get out of my mind.

I arrive at my house in the middle of the woods. Every time I walk through the doors, I still remember that fire. How my family was burned. How Laura and I were left in the world without a pack besides the two of us. How my uncle was in "critical" condition. Lastly, how I was alone. Being alone and lonely are two completely different things. Being lonely is when you have people who are there with you, but there's no one there for you. Being alone is not having anyone there at all. Zip. Nada. And I was certainly alone. I cannot deny that I probably should get some therapy after all of the things I've been through for my whole life. Even before I was born, the hunters were trying to kill me.

It seems everywhere I go, someone is out to hurt me, physically or emotionally. For god's sake, Scott thinks I'm the worst person on the face of this earth, even though I taught the kid how to survive and saved his life multiple times. Then, we have this nice alpha pack coming to town and trying to wipe my whole entire pack out. The only thing I have in my life right now is Isaac, who has to live with me since his father was killed. He won't ever know how much he means to me. Wolves are not solitary animals, and neither are humans, so it's damaging to be alone for so many years.

I walk into my house to find Isaac sleeping on an old couch that somehow survived the fire. It's covered in black ash, but he took to it as soon as I let him into my home. I set down my gym bag and climb up the stairs to go to sleep myself.

Suddenly, I was out in the woods, I don't know how I got there, but there I am, being swallowed by the trees and other plants. The woods always makes me feel calmer. Except this time. I turn around and she Mr. Argent holding Lena and holding a knife up to her throat.

"She's not a werewolf, so it's easier to kill her, isn't it sweetheart?" There are tears pouring down Lena's face. Her eyes are closed and her breathing is scattered and shallow. Her heart is beating fast and I can feel how scared she is.

"Let her go! She's never done anything to you!" I yell. I can't lose Lena, I just met her, there's something about her I need to know and I can't do that with her dead.

"That's where you're wrong, young Derek. You see," he brings the knife closer to her neck now so it's touching her skin lightly, "she made you fall in love, and we can't have that, now can we?" His eyes turned black and I wake up in a cold sweat.

I have to find her.


	3. Chapter 3

Lena

I wake up startled at my dream. Allison's father was holding a knife against my throat and was saying things to Derek Hale. Something about how I made him fall in love. It shook me up a little bit, and I decided I needed something to drink. I roll out of bed and walk downstairs into the kitchen.

I grab myself a cup and fill it up with ice and water while humming the lullaby my mom used to sing to me. I turn around to our round kitchen table and find Derek sitting there, watching me. I drop my cup and just as I begin to scream, he rushes over and cups his hand over my mouth to muffle the scream. I stand in his embrace and he holds me waist from behind with one arm and my mouth with another. I somehow feel terrified and safe at the same time as he holds me there. He leans in close to my face, his lips brushing up against my ear as chills go down my spine. His lips were soft as they move when he says, "We don't want to wake up Bella Luca, I just want to talk to you about the dream." He lets go of me and walks over to my table, pulls out a chair for me across from him, and sits down.

"What dream?" I ask him innocently, I could tell he knew though.

"Don't play dumb with me, Lena, I had the same nightmare."

"He had to kill me because you were in love with me. He said that you didn't deserve love… Why?"

"Let's just say, the Argents and the Hales don't mix. It's a long family feud."

"A feud big enough to kill me? I'm Allison's friend, I've known them ever since they came to Beacon Hills."

"It's a big one, trust me. I'm afraid that our nightmare there might actually happen, so I'm going to keep you under close watch if that's alright."

"Um, it's just a dream, I don't need protecting."

"Lena," his gray eyes look dead into mine and they appear to be actually concerned about my safety.

I just nod at him, not saying a word, but still keeping my eyes locked with his.

"Good. Since I don't go to school anymore, I'll inform Isaac Lahey and Scott McCall about this. They'll watch over you there. Now, Lena," he rises from his chair and kneels in front of me. He brushes a piece of my hair out of my face and as he does so, his fingers gently brush over my skin, giving my goose bumps on my arms and legs. He smiles at me and says, "go back to bed, you have school in a few hours." And with that, he's gone again.

I wipe up my spilled water on the floor, so Bella Luca doesn't suspect anything and slowly walk back up the stairs, checking behind me every other stair to make sure Derek had actually left, not that I would mind if he stayed. He's different from what my sister had said earlier.

Once I was back in my bed, I just stared at my ceiling. I knew I would be spending a lot of time with Derek, and what if he fell in love with me? What if our nightmare actually happens? How would he even think of protecting me from him? He's only a few years older than I am, he can't protect me unless he was a werewolf or some other mythical creature or superhero, but there isn't a reality of him being one. I toss and turn for the rest of the night, but I can't shake the feeling of his arm around my waist, his lips on my ear, and his fingers on my forehead. I finally fall asleep a two hours before my alarm is supposed to go off with the thought of Derek's arms around my waist, and his lips on mine.


	4. Chapter 4

Derek

I left the inside of Lena's house after our little chat, but I couldn't just leave her there without any protection. I decided to stay outside her house and made sure nothing would harm her. Through her window, I watched her fall asleep, her eyelids fluttering to a close. She looked so peaceful as she laid there, then her alarm went off and she had a freak attack. I ran back to my house to let Isaac know about the night before.

I walk in the door and Isaac is in the kitchen eating cereal. "Where were you last night? I heard you leave," he questions me.

"I was at Lena Perrini's house. We both had a dream last night that Chris Argent was going to kill her."

"Let me guess, I have to watch her during the school hours?"

I shoot him a look, "Don't act like you know everything, if that's one thing I've learned in my life, it's that."

"But I am correct, right?"

"Right. Tell Scott too. I know you're more willing, but I just don't want another regular person getting wrapped up in all of this. Lydia still hasn't recovered fully."

"Alright, well, I better get going if I'm going to watch after her."

I watch him pick up his bookbag and leave, closing the door behind him. I'm a little worried about Lena, after all, she knows nothing about werewolves and why Chris Argent wanted to kill her in the dream. I was exhausted keeping watch on her all last night. I slowly climb the stairs and lay down in my bed. I realize while laying there that I didn't need to stay at Lena's house, but I wanted to. I start to begin that maybe I'm just using her safety as an excuse to be around her, but I don't get very far, because I fall asleep. I dream about Lena's laugh this time when I go to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Lena

I arrive at school and I spot Isaac standing on the grass, waiting for me. I get out of our car and walk over to him.

"What nice service I have," I tease him. Isaac and I have known each other since we were five. His dad was Bella Luca's swim coach when she was in high school. We also went to the same elementary, middle, and high schools.

"Derek seemed pretty worried about you."

I stop in my tracks and stop Isaac with my arm. I walk around to the front of him and ask, "He did?" I tried not to sound too giddy the thought of Derek's concern for me.

"Well, as concerned as he could be since he didn't get back until maybe a half an hour ago."

"That's odd, he left my house around one…"

"That's where you're wrong. He stayed at your house until you woke up, he wanted to make sure you were completely safe."

I didn't know how I felt about this. Derek watched me sleep. I couldn't tell if I found that sweet, or downright creepy. All I could do was smile at Isaac and he just raised his eyebrow at me and walked me into school. We walked together to my first class, Geometry. He stopped at the door and said good-bye.

I walk in and take my seat, which is right next to Stiles Stilinski. We were dating once. Well, I don't know if you could call it dating since we were in seventh grade. It was one of those little kid relationships where you never did anything or went anywhere, you just liked each other and said you were dating. Unfortunately, we broke up via instant messaging two weeks after we started "dating." Now, whenever I walk into our math class, he smiles at me and raises his eyebrows. It's his hello to me.

"Hey," he says leaning over to me now, "why did Isaac just walk you here? Are you dating?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"You two are going out, aren't you? How could you do this? Not even inform me, you're ex-boyfriend? Don't I have a right to know about this?"

"Stiles, we went out in seventh grade and we didn't even actually_ go out_. We just said we were dating… And you broke up with me over instant message."

"Okay, I figured that was wrong," I shoot him a glance and smile because we are getting so worked up over this, "but, will you at least tell me? I might die if you don't!" Now he's right up in my face, only about two inches away.

"Stiles, lean in, I'll whisper it to you because I don't want everyone to know." His eyes light up and he is not hesitant to lean his ear up near my mouth. Very quietly I whisper, "Isaac Lahey and I are _not_ dating." He leans back and glares at me and all I can do is laugh.

Throughout the day, Isaac and Scott switch from taking me to my classes. At lunch I had to sit in between them. Allison sat across from me and kept staring at Scott. Then she would look down and Scott would start staring at her. Both Isaac and I noticed it and it finally got to a point to where I couldn't take it anymore. I push back my chair and say, "I have to use the bathroom."

"I'll take you!" both Scott and Isaac say, standing up with me.

"Boys, I don't need to be escorted to the bathroom, but thank you. Allison," I say and she looks up from her salad into my eyes, "come with me."

"Oh, but I'm—"

"Come."

She gets up and we walk to the bathroom and I stop outside the bathroom door. "Stop acting like you don't like him, you are a terrible actress," I say.

Allison looks at me, "What?"

"You're still in love with Scott."

"No..?"

"Terrible actress."

"So what if I do? He was my first love and…"

"And what? You love him, go tell him."

"He's moved on."

"That's a lie. He stared at you all through lunch! Look, just tell him how you feel, or I will."

"I can't. I… I just can't. I've hurt him so many times and I don't think I can get into all of his stuff again. It's just too hard on me."

I look at her and her eyes have tears in them. I feel bad for her, but then I begin to think about Derek and Mr. Argent since Scott and Derek are together a lot.

"Hey, I have a question," I tell her.

"Yeah?" She wipes the tears from her eyes.

"What is the ancient family feud between the Argents and the Hales?"

Her face goes pale and her eyes widen, "It's really nothing, it happened so long ago that I don't even know exactly what it is. Why do you ask?" She said this quickly, which made me think it wasn't nothing.

"I just met Derek the other day and I have to spend a lot of time with him in the future and—"

"Don't. It's just better not to get wrapped up into what Derek, Scott, Isaac, and the rest of them are." With that, she leaves and enters the cafeteria again.

I begin to rethink this whole situation with Derek. My mind says no, but my heart says yes. I decide to follow my heart on this one.


	6. Chapter 6

Derek

I wait for Lena outside of the school for her to come out. As soon as the bell rings though, I'm engulfed in many other bodies and I can't find Lena. The amount of children come at me begin to lessen and I finally see Lena coming down the front stairs with Scott on one side of her and Isaac on the other, laughing. She looks up and sees me, smiles and looks down. Her face blushes a little bit and then she keeps laughing at something Scott said. This whole scene seems to go in slow motion until she reaches the bottom of the stairs and walks towards me.

"What are you doing here?" she asks.

"You're coming with Isaac and me, call your sister and tell her you're going to a friend's house."

"You want me to lie to my sister?"

"Well, aren't we friends?"

"I wouldn't say just yet," she pats my chest and walks out near the curb and calls her sister.

I just stare at her as she talks, looking back and smiling every so often. "You like her," Isaac states, bringing me back into reality.

"No, I do not."

"Alright," he says putting his arm over my shoulders, "whatever you say."

I glare at him and he drops his arm. Lena comes back over to us and we all get in my car and drive through the woods to my house. We all get out and Isaac runs up the porch stairs, opens the door, and walks right in. I begin to follow him when I hear Lena ask, "You don't still live here, do you?"

"Well, it's not that bad," I say and she raises her eyebrows. "It's livable and when you lose all of your family and neither you nor your sister have jobs, it's hard to find a new house."

"I know what you mean," and just like that, she follows me into the house. She looks all around the house, touching the ashen stained floors and walls, looks at the tall plants that found a way to somehow strive in the hostile environment, then she got to the whole in the ground where Peter rose back to life. I stuck her head in it and I pulled her out, telling her to never go near there.

I decide we should go outside so she doesn't uncover any other family secrets. She looks around a bit and then says, "This is where the dream was…" Her face looked so innocent, like a baby's.

"Yes, it is. The Argents know where I live; they have for a long time," I say thinking about the fire, my family trapped in that house. Chills go down my spine.

"Hey, do you want to see my dance solo? I really need to practice in front of someone to make sure I'm doing it right. Bella Luca will never watch me because she says I'm fine already, but I just want another person's opinion. Please?" She folds her hands together and pouts.

"Alright, I was wondering how good you were anyways." She claps and steers me out of the way.

She solo was obviously difficult for any person who cannot dance, but Lena made it look so easy. Her leaps and twirls were all so graceful; it was like she wasn't even touching the ground. Then, there was this one part where she had to pull her leg behind her back, and she got uneasy and I ran over and caught her just as she was about to fall. Her hands were pressed against my chest, our noses touching. She was gasping as I held her close and whisper, "This is me protecting you."

She leans up and whispers, "This is me thanking you," and put hers lips on mine and kisses me.

We stand there in each other's embrace, our lips locked, then, "Derek?" Our lips part and then the same voice says, "Lena?" in a more surprised tone. We turn around and there stands Stiles Stilinski, his mouth wide open and not moving a muscle.

I smile a little, laugh uncomfortably, and say, "Hey there, Stiles."


	7. Chapter 7

Stiles

The three of us stood there in silence for a few seconds, but it felt like years. Derek Hale, the werewolf who beats me up every other day, was just kissing Lena Perrini, the sweetest girl on the face of the planet. I felt like I was in the middle of a nightmare. I was furious, I should be with Lena, not Derek Hale. I'm the one who makes her laugh every day. I'm the one who comforts her when she cries. I've known Lena since we were little and then Derek comes in and just sweeps her off her feet. This isn't even fair.

"Stiles," Lena says now separating herself from Derek and walking closer to me, "what are you doing here exactly?" Derek looks down at the ground like a puppy that just got scolded.

I walk over and look at him with my brow furrowed, "I wanted to let him know that no one can find Scott."

Derek automatically looks up, his eyes wide, and says, "What?"

"No one knows where he is. His mother can't find him, I've called nearly every single person I know and none of them know where he is either. I even tried to call you and you didn't answer." I look at Lena and say, "Now I know why." She hangs her head, avoiding looking me.

"I have to go," Derek says. He calls for Isaac in the house and they both round the corner of the house, leaving our sight. All of a sudden he comes back around and yells to me, "Stiles, watch her."

"Does she really need a babysitter?" I ask him, but he's already gone. I turn around and catch Lena looking at me, but she quickly looks down. I walk over and stand in front of her and say, "Lena, what are you thinking?"

"I really wasn't at that moment…"

"I can tell."

"Hey, I didn't ask for your opinion," she snaps. "If you don't like it, ignore it."

"Well I can't help it if I walk into your little love fest here!"  
"We just kissed! It's not like…," she trails off.

"It's not like what?"

"Never mind."

I finally get what she's saying. "Oh."

"Look, Stiles, I'm just going to go home now."

"Can I at least walk you there?"

She looks at me for a while, then nods. I was glad she let me walk her home. I didn't mean to make her upset, it's just… I like her and I was upset and I reacted the wrong way. We walked in silence for most of the way, but not that kind of awkward silence, the kind that's comfortable and feels normal. Lydia used to tell me that every good relationship needs to have that quality and that is what she and Jackson had before he moved. I realize that I might actually have a chance with Lena because of this silence, plus she and Derek weren't really official, or at least I don't think they are. I look over at her and she stares at the ground and kicks a rock, then looks at me and smiles.

We arrive at her house and I run up her porch stairs and hold my hand out for her to take, she reaches out and takes it, slightly laughing as she does. I guide her onto the porch and she accidentally trips on the last stair and falls into me. "Oops," she says laughing and picking up her shoe that fell off, "I'm sorry, Stiles."

I chuckle, "It's no problem, it's sort of my fault anyway," she smiles as she puts on her shoe. I'm still holding her hand, her fingers lightly wrapped around my hand. "Lena?"

She looks up at me, "Hmm?"

"I'm sorry about earlier, I just really wasn't expecting that. I've never seen Derek show emotion. Plus, you're just total polar opposites."

Lena laughs and says, "I have figured that much about him out. And it's okay, I didn't mean to put up my defenses. It's just I think I really like him." My stomach dropped into my butt. "Thanks for walking me home Stiles," she says, leaning over and giving me a kiss on my cheek.

As she walks in the house, she looks over her shoulder and smiles at me. Then she closes the door on me and my love for her.


	8. Chapter 8

Lena

It's finally summer, meaning I am finished with school and dance for the time being. Derek and I have been what you could say is dating. Truthfully, it's just me spending all my time in the woods with him, mostly just making out on his front porch. It's humid outside now, so by the time I leave, I'm dripping in sweat. The other week he showed me this great swimming pond/lake thing, I told him we are definitely swimming in there all summer.

Tonight is the annual Beacon Hills Festival that always happens the second weekend in June. Derek and I are going with Allison, Lydia, Scott, Stiles, and Isaac. He's not entirely pleased with most of the people there, but it's our first actual date, so I am hoping he's pretty excited.

At the moment I'm getting ready, trying on 5,000 different outfits, the difficult decision to either straighten or curl my hair, putting on the right amount of makeup, and what jewelry to wear. I finally figured out my outfit: my cream lace shirt, my high-rise pink shorts, and my white gladiator sandals, when my sister knocks on my door. I crack it open so I can stick my head out to see her. She had a white and plaid shirt, jean shorts, and her cowboy boots.

"Are you performing tonight?" I ask her.

She looks down at her outfit, "Yeah. I'm not excited. That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about, I have to be down there at 5 to start setting up and stuff, do you want to come down with me or…?"

"Don't worry, Derek is taking me around 7. We're meeting up with some other people."

A look of concern flashes across her face and she pushes my door open wider, walks past me, sits on my bed, and pats the mattress, signaling me to sit next to her. I walk over and plop down, causing Bella Luca to bounce up a little bit.

"You've been spending a lot of time with Derek Hale…"

"You don't have to call him 'Derek Hale,' you know that right?"

"Yes, but you have been spending a lot of time with him and he's so much older than you. Now, I know that if I tell you not to date him, you will just disregard that I even said anything about it." I look down at my feet. "So, if you want to date him, go ahead, just be careful, okay?" She rises from my bed, kissing the top of my head, and leaves, closing the door behind her.

I just sit there on my bed for a little while, thinking about what she said, but then I remember the first time I met Derek, just standing on the curb, looking concerned when he didn't see Scott. I smile and continue to get ready.

Since Bella Luca cut into about 10 minutes of my getting ready time, I had to straighten my hair. For a normal girl, this might only take about 20-30 minutes, but me being "blessed" with my thick, wavy Italian hair, it takes me nearly an hour and a half to get it perfectly straightened. Once that torture is over, I walk over to my vanity and start putting on my makeup, I decided just to go with a natural look, just mascara and a little blush on my cheeks.

As I'm brushing the blush onto my other cheek, I hear a car pull into my driveway. I check my phone: 6:23. _It can't be Derek, it's too early._ Then, there was a knock at my front door. I tense up, starting to relive that afternoon again. The afternoon my dad died. I grab my tube of pepper spray and walk slowly down the stairs. I open my wood door, close my eyes, and start to spray when I hear, "GOOD GOD LENA CUT IT OUT!" I open my eyes to see Stiles standing in the doorway, rubbing his eyes.

"Stiles!? What are you doing here!?" I am almost crying, "You scared me nearly half to death!"

"_I_ scared _you_? You're the one who sprayed me with pepper spray!" His eyes are watering now and when he tried to open them, I see the part that's normally white is bright red.

"Ooh, Stiles, just keep your eyes closed, here," I say grabbing hold of his waist, "let's wash your eyes out."

I lead him to the kitchen and over to the sink. I turn on the water and he starts to rinse them out as I take a seat at the table, watching him. He finally finishes, takes the towel off of the counter that I placed there for him, and turns around facing me while wiping off his face. I stand up, waiting for him to hand the towel back to me so I can put it back in the drawer. He takes the towel off of his face and freezes.

"Stiles, what's wrong?" I ask him, a little worried that he might be allergic to the pepper spray.

"Nothing. It's just... it's just… you look beautiful."

I look down at my feet and blush, "Thank you. Oh, I can take that towel from you," I say holding out my hand.

He hands the towel to me and I take it, placing it back in the drawer and he takes a seat across from where I was sitting earlier, and where I was sitting the night Derek came into my house.

"So Stiles," I say sitting myself in the same spot as before, "what are you doing here?"

"Oh, right, I was seeing if you needed a ride to the festival tonight."

"You came all the way to my house, scaring me half to death, to ask me if a needed a ride to the festival?"

"Uhh… Yeah…?"

"You could've just texted me, you didn't have to come to my house," I laugh.

"Well, do you?"

Just as I was about to answer, the doorbell rings. I glance at the clock: 7. I rise from the table and run to the front door, Stiles close behind. I open up the door, smiling, and find Derek doing the same, until he spots Stiles. "What is he doing here?" Derek asks glaring at Stiles.

"Derek, he's my friend, you know that. And he was just coming here to see if I needed a ride tonight."

"Couldn't you have texted her that?" Derek says coming into the foyer.

"That's what she already asked me," Stiles answers.

They stand there, staring at each other until I say, "Alright, well let's go!"

We all leave my house and start heading towards the festival.


	9. Chapter 9

Derek

I was alarmed when I saw Stiles behind my girlfriend when I was picking her up. Lena told me after the time he caught us kissing that they "dated" in seventh grade and truthfully, it didn't bother me. In the two years since I've known Stiles, he's never had a girlfriend, actually, I'm almost positive he's never been kissed. Also, it's not that I hate him or anything, because I don't. I just find him really irritating and most of the time I just want to rip his head off, but this wasn't one of those times. He's always been kind to women and I… well I've never really connected with women… with anyone really. I am just afraid that if Lena liked Stiles once, that she might like him again.

Now though, I'm driving Isaac and Lena to the festival. Lena's in shot gun, texting someone, most likely Lydia, while Isaac is looking out the window. I look over at Lena and smile at her, she catches me, leans over, and kisses me on the lips.

"Hey you two, I know you like each other and all, but can you please not make out while you're driving. Even though I can heal, I'd rather the car not crash into a tree," Isaac says.

Lena's lips quickly part from mine and she asks, "What do you mean heal?" She twists her body in her seat to face him in the back.

I glare at Isaac in the rearview mirror and his eyes grow large as he stutters, "Um, uh, I have tougher skin since my dad beat me before he died."

Lena's eyes widen and she turns back around. She knows Isaac's dad beat him, but she doesn't like to hear about it. I look at him once more in the rearview and he raises his eyebrows and a small smile creeps across his face.

We finally arrive at the festival and Mr. Stilinski is there, telling people where to park. I roll down my window to talk to him and then I hear, "Hey, Mr. Stilinski!"

"Lena?" he asks sticking his head into my car.

"Yeah! Hi! Are you working tonight?"

"Um, yeah… I am." He must be confused to see sweet little Lena Perrini in a car with two ex-fugitives, I mean, who wouldn't. He shakes his head a little and rolls his eyes then says, "Mr. Hale, you just keep on going to the north parking spaces," he looks back at Lena, "Have a good night."

I step on it just to get out of that situation as soon as possible. "Well that was awkward." Isaac says and I just look at him.

I finally find somewhere to park and we start walking into the festival when we start to hear Lena's name being called and squealing to follow. _Lydia Martin_. She's comes running up to us, and attacks Lena from behind, scaring her half to death. Scott, Allison, and Stiles follow behind her, Scott and Allison smiling and waving while Stiles is looking at the ground with his hands in his pockets.

We stay together for a while, but then Lena drags me away to play some games and ride the rides. She takes me to this one game where old milk jars are placed in a pyramid. She pays for three baseballs and places one in my hand. I look at her kind of confused, "What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Derek, you try and knock down all the milk jars, duh."

"That's it? That's how you win the game by knocking down three milk jars?"

She smiles and nods. I look at the baseball in my hand, pull my arm back, and throw the ball with everything in me. Not only did I knock down the three milk jars, but I accidentally made the ball go straight through the booth's back ground. Lena looks at me, her eyes wide and the guy who is working does the same.

"Dude," he says looking at me, "that was… _awesome_!"

I chuckle a little, "Thanks….. dude."

"You can take anything from the top shelf."

Lena points out a big pink bear and I look at her, wondering if she's serious, but then she starts whining for it, so I, Derek Hale, the man who always wears leather jackets, who is an alpha werewolf, who lives in the middle of the woods, have to carry around a massive pink bear for my girlfriend for the rest of the night.


	10. Chapter 10

Stiles

Lydia and I are on the Viking ship ride when I see them: Derek and Lena. Lena's pulling him into the ride gates and they stop in the middle, Derek pointing to the row they were standing in, while Lena points up towards Lydia and me in the top row. Derek takes in a deep breath and explains something to her, she folds her hands over his, and she whispers something to him. He nods and rolls his eyes and she drags him up to the top row. I shove myself into the corner of our seats so Lena doesn't see me.

"Hey guys!" Lydia says, scooting over to make room for the two of them and the giant pink bear Derek is holding.

"Hi Lydia," Lena says, smiling, she furrows her brows together as she peers around Lydia. "Stiles?"

"Oh, hey Lena and Derek," I chuckle, "I didn't see you there."

"We couldn't see you either, buddy, since you were hiding behind Lydia," Derek sasses me.

Lena looks at him and whispers, "Derek, be nice, you're the one who's afraid of heights."

He looks around, "I'm not afraid of heights, I don't like going up and down quickly, it makes me nauseous."

She rubs his back and I want to puke, "It's alright," she says, "I'm right here."

I gag over the edge of the ride. "Aww, aren't they just adorable, Stiles?" Lydia asks me, watching Lena and Derek be "cute" together.

"Yep," I muster, "So. Stinking. Cute."

I couldn't wait to get off that ride. It's only like a minute long ride, but it felt like years with Derek clutching onto Lena like a little baby and Lena laughing. The ride finally stopped and I bolted. I bolted for the food tent because, well, I was hungry. Bella Luca and her band were performing, so I sat in the far back so she wouldn't see me without Lena since she thought Lena was going to be a group with me the whole night.

So I sit there, in the back of the food tent, eating my fries. Alone. I looks around, everyone was with someone. Two elderly people at the table next to me were sharing a funnel cake. There were two teenagers making out against the pole on the far side of the tent. Two little kids were running around and holding hands. And where was I? Eating at a table all alone because the girl I'm in love with is dating a werewolf. I stick a French fry in my mouth and sigh at how I'm only attracted to girls who are unavailable.


	11. Chapter 11

Lena

I drag Derek into the food tent where Bella Luca was performing to dance. We meet up with Scott and Allison, who still say they aren't dating, but all of us know they basically are. I walk up to Bella Luca and whisper in her ear a song request. She looks at me, unwilling to sing it for me, so I put on my best puppy dog face. She looks at me for a while, then, reluctantly says, "Fine," and walks away.

I skip/walk back over to Derek and he looks scared of what is about to happen.

"Hello everyone," Bella Luca says into the microphone, "I just got a special song request, now we don't do these often, but I do really like this song." She looks at me, "This is for Lena and Derek." She sits down a stool that was brought out for her as Dave, Bella Luca's boyfriend who happens to be in her band, sits down next to her with his ukulele. He strums the first few chords of "You and I" by Ingrid Michaelson as I pull Derek into the middle of the space that was available to dance.

When we get there, he whispers to me, "Lena, I don't know how to dance."

I get up on my tippy toes, getting close to his ear, gently rubbing my lips on it, "Just follow my lead then."

I wink at him, place his arms on my hips, and then I wrap my arms around his neck. We sway to the music, other couples joining us. I throw my head back in laughter at the fact that Derek really wasn't lying when he said he couldn't dance. He kept stepping on my feet, but I couldn't even get mad because right after he would apologize.

Then, a miracle happened, he started singing along, with the correct lyrics and everything. He smiles at me, singing, "Oh let's get rich and buy our parents' homes in the south of France."

"Oh let's get rich and give everybody nice sweaters and teach them how to dance," I sing back, laughing as I do.

Derek started to laugh as well and when he loosened up, he really wasn't such a bad dancer. The song ended and everyone started clapping for Bella Luca and Dave and then I stopped Stiles, getting up and throwing away an empty French fry basket. "Derek, I'll be right back," I say parting from him.

"Stiles! Stiles!" I call out, while running, but he doesn't hear me. "Stiles! Hey Stiles! Stiles Stilinski!" I'm arm's length away from him now and I grab onto his shoulder. He looks at me, his face looking sad, but he is trying to cover it with a smile. I take a step back, "What's wrong?"

"With me?" he asks and I nod. "Nothing! Nothing is wrong with me."

"Alright…" I was still skeptical, but if Stiles didn't want to tell you something, he would never tell you. "I didn't get to talk to you after the Viking ship. Why did you run off so fast."

"Oh, I just felt a little sick," he said a little to quickly. I raise an eyebrow at him. "What?" he says.

"You're not telling me something."

"I don't have to tell you everything." And with that, he walks away.

"Alright, goodness, Diva," I say under my breath.

I watch him walk away into the distance, the sun setting in front of him, giving him the weird halo. Suddenly, I feel a big hand on my shoulder and I jump. I turn around to find Derek slipping his arm across my shoulders, smiling down at me. I smile back at him, he automatically cheered me up from before.

"Follow me," he says, dropping his arm off of my shoulders and intertwining his fingers with mine. I bite my lower lip and follow right behind him into a garden.


	12. Chapter 12

Derek

I took Lena into a nearby garden. Tonight was the night I was going to tell her what I actually was. But I couldn't just _tell_ her, I wanted to _show_ her. I planned on just talking to her until it got dark, then I would say I am going to get something, then when she calls out my name several times, I'll appear behind her as a werewolf. Once she starts screaming—as she should—I would shift back and tell her it was me all along. Hopefully she doesn't run away and dump me.

I lead her into the middle of the garden, where there are cement pillars standing in a big rectangle, each pillar was covered in vines, so it made the garden have a jungle effect. I thought this would be a good place to stop and talk. Phase one begins.

"Let's stop here," I say, sitting down in the grass. I pat the ground next to me, signaling her to do the same.

"These are new shorts and I don't want grass stains on them, so I'm just going to sit on this rock."

"Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously. I'm not like you who wears all black all the time."

"That's not true. I am wearing a gray shirt tonight." I unzip my leather jacket and show her the color of my shirt. She leans forward to get a closer look, since the sun was setting fast and growing darker by the moment.

"Wow," she says, "that's impressive." There was a hint of sarcasm in her voice and I cock and eyebrow at her. She smiles and looks away.

It was now pitch black, darkness had engulfed the world around us, it was now time to show her who I truly was.

"Hey, Lena," I say, rising from the ground.

She looks up at me, "Yeah?"

"I'm going to get something really fast, okay? I'll be right back."

She grabs onto my jacket sleeve as I start to turn away. I look at her hand, gripping my arm and then at her. She quickly pulls back her arm, holding it against her chest. She looks away from me and I begin to walk away. Once she thinks I'm out of earshot I hear her say, "Please, God, bring him back. Please keep me safe. Please don't let anything happen to either of us. _Please_." I crinkle up my eyebrows, but I couldn't stop my plan now. I had to go through with it.

I wait in the darkness for a little while, so it would look like I was actually getting something from somewhere. I watch her, sitting on the rock, twiddling her thumbs, and looking around every other second. I'm holding a stick, and I decide it's time to snap it so she knows someone or rather _something _is here. I break it in half and she hears it, automatically sitting up straight, alarmed by the sound. "Derek," I hear her call quietly, "is that you?" I don't answer. I start to walk around the pillars, shuffling my feet. "Derek?" she says quietly now. I hear her heart begin to beat faster. "Who's there?" I don't answer. "Hello?" She's crying.

I start to run; I pass her, catching a glimpse of her face. She's pale. I keep running. I can't stop now, I can't. I shift. Lena starts to run, but she doesn't know where, just somewhere. She wants to get out. I have to get to her. I am still running outside of the pillars, but I start to get ahead and then, we met. I stop her dead in her tracks. I can feel her heart about to leap out of her chest. She screams a blood curdling scream as she looks at my face. I didn't even have enough time to shift back before she was on the ground… passed out.

"Lena?" I am by her side, her left arm crossed over her body. I grab her left hand and listen for a pulse. She's alive. "Lena, Lena can you hear me? Lena?" she groans a little bit. "Lena, wake up." A tear rolls down my face. I didn't mean to do this to her. I didn't want this to happen to her. How could I have known? "Lena," I whisper, "Lena come on, wake up." She groans again, rolling herself on her back, flinging her arm over her limp body.

"Derek?" her eyes flutter open.

"Lena!" I situate her body so she's leaning up against mine.

"Derek, you should have seen what I just saw. It had fangs and pointy ears and claws and its eyes," she turns her head so she's looking into my eyes, "they were _red_. This may sound odd, but it looked like a _werewolf_."

"Lena—"

"I know, I sound crazy," she repositions herself, rubbing against me, "werewolves don't exist."

"Lena," I say standing up. She looks at me, leaning back on her arms. "You don't sound crazy."

"Yes, I do," she says laughing.

"No, you don't," I say as I shift.

She gasps, then covers her mouth. She gets up from the ground slowly, I expect her to run away and tell the whole town about me, but she doesn't. She walks towards me, then stops about 6 inches from me. I turn my face away from her. I feel so exposed. Lena gently rests her hand on my chin, slowly turning my face towards her.

We stare at each other until she smiles and whispers, "What I didn't tell you before was, I've always thought werewolves were hot."

I chuckle a little bit, my body loosening from being so tense before. Then she stops smiling and looks at the ground. My heart sinks. "It's okay if you don't want to date a werewolf," I say to her.

"No, Derek, I'm not just going to leave you just because you showed me who you are. It's not like you go around killing everyone." Her head raises, "Do you?"

"I've never killed anyone," I reply.

She lets out a big breath of air, "Thank God!"

"Then what's wrong if you're not upset about me being a werewolf?"

"I haven't told you everything you exactly need to know about me."

She sits down on the ground, looking up at me. I take a seat next to her.

"You know that my father died when I was three, correct?" I nod. "Well, I didn't tell you how he died." Her face turns dark, her heart beats slower, she's afraid of telling me something. I grab her hand to comfort her. She looks at me and goes on. "He was like a spy or something for the U.S. government, I am not sure exactly what he was, or even did because it was so confidential. Well, once he had to go on a special mission in Italy, which is where he grew up and everything, he even had a dual citizenship. The mission went smoothly, he came back without a problem, but about a week later, Italy figured out he was a spy for the U.S. They sent over men to get rid of him." A tear fell down her cheek when she said this, but she quickly wiped it away. "It was the middle of the night and some of them came into our house through my parents' windows, but there were two who came into Bella Luca's and my windows. They were dressed in all black and carried big army guns. They either didn't speak English or didn't want to. I, only being three, my Italian wasn't very good at that point. They were pointing their guns at us in our beds and screaming, '_Bambine ottengono nell'armadio_!' Luckily, my sister, who was 13 at the time, knew it ment, 'Little girls, get in the closet!' She carried me out of my bed and into our small little closet. The last thing I remember in the man in black closing the closet door on us and then a gun shot went off.

"When my mother came to retrieve us, my father was dead. Police were everywhere in our house. They asked my mother and sister questions as I sat on my bed, crying. Mr. Stilinski was there and noticed me crying, he came into my room, pulled me on his lap, and started to talk to me.

"I wasn't exactly okay after that day. I was always jumpy, expecting someone to come after me with a gun, saying I was the next to die. I would have horrible night terrors that would leave me waking up in a cold sweat. When I was nine, Bella Luca thought I should get psychiatric help. I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. It's been several years now and even though I'm not as bad as I used to be, I am still fighting this disorder every day. In fact, I pepper sprayed Stiles today." She looks down and plays with her rings. "So that's me."

"Lena—"

"Trust me, if there was a way to make this go away, I would jump on it in a heartbeat."

I thought about The Bite and how it could possibly cure her disorder, but I wasn't about to risk her life so she could be normal, I was falling in love with her. So, I bit my tongue about it.

"Lena," I push back a strand of her hair, "we both have our quirks and your disorder, I don't find a problem with it. I'm here to protect you, remember? I will always be here for you." With that, I press my lips onto hers and kiss her, hard and passionately. She didn't care that I was a werewolf and I didn't care that she would most likely pepper spray me every so often.


	13. Chapter 13

Lena

It had been a few weeks since Derek and I opened up about our pasts to each other and since then, things have gotten pretty serious between us. We've never actually gone all the way, but we've gotten pretty close. The odd thing is: I am ready to sleep with Derek, it's just, he's always the one to stop. I don't know why, he just does. We've never talked about it. I certainly don't want to and I think the topic isn't his thing to talk about. He'd rather just tell me the latest news in the supernatural world. I don't mind listening to this stuff, it fascinates me actually, but I can't really understand the things he's saying as well as he can. It feels like there is a staircase between us, where he is at the top and I'm still standing on the bottom step, trying to move, but I can't. If only there was a way to become what he is.

I have been helping him and Isaac move into Derek's new loft downtown, since the city took over his house. It's a gorgeous apartment. My favorite thing about it is the big set of windows that over looks the street below.

"I always wanted a wall made out of windows," I told him the first time he took me there. "There's just something about it, it just brings in so much light into a room. It's pretty."

He stood behind me, his arms wrapped around my waist, I leaned back and smelled in his musty scent and feeling his stubble scratch against my forehead. "You're my big window then. You bring light into my life, like no one ever had before you."

I turn around so I am facing him and smile, "Derek, you've had to have other girlfriends besides me who you have loved."

"I had one," he let's go of me, turning and walking away. He takes a seat on the spiral staircase. "Kate Argent."

"Allison's aunt?"

"Yes. I don't know if you could count her as a girlfriend. We mostly just fooled around…" He looked as if he was in a different world. "I loved her, and I thought she loved me back. I thought she was different from her brother and father, you know, like Allison supposedly is. I was wrong though. She… she uh… she used me to find where my family was. Once she found them, she burned them, killing them all. Some, not even werewolves." He looked at me now, straight in the eyes, the most serious I've ever seen him. "I basically helped her murder my family." His eyes were tearing up. "It was my fault all of my family is dead."

I walked over to him, sitting down next to him, "Derek, you couldn't have known that was going to happen."

"Yes, I did. She was an _Argent_ for god's sake!" his voice rising. "My family warned me, but did I listen? No. And then, she killed them!" He took a few deep breaths to calm down a bit. "That's why I didn't like Scott dating Allison. I didn't want him to make the same mistake I did. As much as that kid gets on my nerves, I care for him. He's different from me, and he's helped me change into a better person, err um wolf."

I laughed a little, then said, "Derek, the past is the past, you can't go back and change it. You just have to go forward, learning from your mistakes. And you still have Peter."

He looked at me, his eyes hard, "Peter killed my sister—"

"And you killed him," I told him. "Well, sort of."

"It's not the same thing. I _had_ to kill Peter or else he would've killed everyone in sight."

"I guess."

"Lena," he took my hand, "I have never trusted anyone after Kate, but then you came into my life and I just want to thank you."

"For what?"

"For letting me have a second chance at love and being able to trust someone."

I am now looking out the window, remembering that day again, as Isaac and Derek move in boxes filled with their very few materials they had from the old house. I feel someone's presence appear next to me. "He really appreciates you being here," Isaacs says.

"What?" I ask, turning to my left, towards him.

He continues to look out the window, his arms crossed, "You know, helping him move from his old life to his new. The past to the present." He looks at me now, "You and I, we are his only family, you understand that right? And we mean the world to him, even though he doesn't show it very well." I nod. He comes closer, leans down to my ear and whispers, "That's why whatever thing you have going on with Stiles, you need to cut that off. He's like a brother to me, and I swear if you break his heart, I will cut your throat out."

I step back, a bit startled. "Stiles and I… We don't have a thing. He's like my best friend. I've known him for so long. And I am not planning on breaking Derek's heart. I couldn't do that to him." I look around making sure Derek was out of sight as I whisper, "I love him."


	14. Chapter 14

Derek

I am standing behind the metal door that leads into my apparent, carrying the last box of stuff when I hear Lena quietly say, "I love him." I nearly drop the box when I hear those words. She loves me. Me. As in Derek Hale, werewolf. Derek Hale, that person with no family. Derek Hale, the former delinquent, arrested for murder. Me.

I open up the door with one hand, while clutching the box with my other hand and balancing it on my knee for extra support. "This is the last box!" I say to Isaac and Lena, pretending I didn't hear anything they just said, but in reality I was sky high. They both look at me. Isaac has his arms folded across his chest, looking stern, while Lena looks afraid, her eyes wide. "What's wrong?"

Lena forces a weary smile onto her face, "Nothing's wrong, babe." She walks over to hug me, leaving Isaac by the window, I could feel his emotion: worry. But who was he worried about? Lena let's go of my waist and says, "So, now that we have all the boxes here, let's start unpacking, and then you'll officially be moved in!" She pecks my cheek and walks over to a box, opening it and pulling some stuff out.

Isaac and I didn't have very many things to move. The biggest things were our beds, and we had previously moved all the furniture in before the rest of the stuff. What was in the boxes was mostly clothes, some cooking and eating utensils, a few blankets, and some lamps. It only took about two and a half hours to unpack everything and place them around the new loft. Once we were finished, the three of us stepped back to soak in our work.

"Looks good," Isaac says.

Lena agrees, saying, "It really does. I was expecting you to get crappy furniture and stuff, like ugly beanbags chairs and card tables and—"

"Lena, please, like Derek would settle for anything less than perfect. You know why he only has many of the same outfits?" She shook her head. "It's because his black on black with a black leather jacket is perfect to him."

She looks at me, "Hey, it matches my skin color," I called out to him. "And I have some gray shirts and like one green one." She laughs at me and I smile at her, kissing her.

"Ew, come on guys, there are rooms upstairs. Please find yourselves one," Isaac says from the couch across the room, where he is now sitting, shirtless.

"Put your shirt back on, that is a brand new leather couch," I scold him, picking up his shirt from the floor by me. I am about to walk over to him when Lena grabs my arm. I look down and her hands, grasping my forearm, then look at her face. "What?" I ask her.

"Maybe we should go upstairs," she says. Her cheeks turn rosy as she looks down at the floor, then back up at me. She rubs her lips together, eyes wide, expecting an answer, but I just continue to look at her. "Or," she says letting go of my arm now, "we can just stay down here and—"

"No," I say cutting her off. She looks up, surprised at me. "Let's go."

As we pass Isaac on the couch I through the shirt at his face. He takes the shirt off of his face, and looks up at me, annoyed. Lena is pulling me up the stairs and I smile and shrug at him, as he disappears out of sight. Still is dragging me down the hallway, when she stops, making me run into her, causing my lips to crash into hers. I'm not complaining about running into her. We stand there, me pressing her up against the bedroom door, and search for the knob behind her. I finally find it, flinging the door open, causing Lena to fall onto the hard floor, with me on top of her.

"Ouch," she says giggling from underneath me, not taking her lips off of mine. Then, she scoots out from under me. I sit up, looking up at her standing up. "I'll be right back," she says ducking into the bathroom. Wow. Way to kill the mood.

I sit on the bed, facing away from the bathroom door, while looking out the window. I think about how far I've come since the fire. I have a new family and set of friends, a new house, and a girlfriend who I adore. I barely hear the bathroom door squeak open as I think of all of this. The next thing I see is Lena standing in front of me, in only her bra and her underwear. Her hands are on her hips and being in front of the window, she makes the sun split into different rays.

"Lena?" I ask, but she's planted her hands on the bed, right next to my hips, her head 2 inches away.

"Shh…," she says leaning closer and kissing me. She slides her body onto mine, making me lay flat on the bed. I run my hands down her back, which happens to be quite bony. She slides off my shirt, throwing it across the room. It lands on one of the wicker chairs that survived the fire. Then, she reaches down and unbuttons my jeans. I couldn't do it. I sit up, flinging her off of me. She's laying on the bed, then sits up, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong."

"Something's wrong."

"It's not you, it's me—"

"Seriously," she raise her arms, then slaps them on her thighs, scowling at me.

"No, Lena I'm not breaking up with you," I say, turn away from her.

I sense her face soften as she scoots herself closer to me on the bed. She sits somewhat behind me, sliding her hands around my neck, then slides them down my bare chest. "Then what's the matter?"

"I've never… Um… I've never exactly done it," I say, trying not to look at her.

"What?"

"You know… I've never done _it_."

"I still have no idea what you mean."

"Lena, come on, yes you do."

"Ohh," she leans back on her heals, taking her arms off of me. "You've never had—"

"Please don't say it out loud," I said, cutting her off before she had a chance to say it.

"Derek, we don't have to if you don't want to. We can wait."

"That's the thing," I say to her, turning around on the bed, "I do want to."

She comes closer to me now, "I was afraid my first time too, but Derek, seriously, if you're not ready then, we don't have to."

I go closer to her, pressing my lips onto hers, and making her lay down. Between kisses I say, "I am ready."


	15. Chapter 15

Lena

I wake up the next morning in Derek's bed. Alone. I rolled over to find him not there next to me. I put on the clothes I had on yesterday and walked down to the floor below. My bare feet are hitting the cold metal stairs as I go down. I reach the landing and see Derek in the kitchen, leaning over the stove, moving his arm back and forth. I try and creep up on him when I hear, "Walk of shame, that's real classy, Lena."

I let out a little scream, because I had no idea someone else was here with us. I spin around and see Isaac lounging on the couch, TV remote in his hand. "Good god, Isaac!" I say, clutching my heart as it's beating 10 times faster than it's supposed to, "don't scare me like that!"

"Bring a change of clothes next time so I just suspect you slept on the couch down here instead of sleeping with him," he says, pointing his thumb in Derek's direction.

Derek is turned around, holding a spatula in his right hand, his eyes widen at the mention of "him." "What did you say?" he asked in a curious tone. Isaac and I both assume he generally didn't hear us.

"Nothing, I just said you are making eggs for the three of us," Isaac glances at me, accenting the three part of that sentence. "That's all."

"Oh," Derek says, turning back around and scrambling the eggs a little more. Isaac and I begin to head into the kitchen, but I glare at him, making him walk behind me. We both enter the kitchen, Isaac taking a seat at the island, the only place to eat in the room, and I walk over to Derek, coming up from behind him and wrapping my arms around his waist. I find the crook of his neck—having to stand on my toes because I am too short—and nestling into it with my head. I hear Isaac gag from behind us, I roll my eyes.

I walk over to Derek's left side, keeping my right arm on his back, but taking off my left. "I didn't know you knew how to cook," I say, peering into the pan at the sizzling eggs.

"It's one of the many mysteries about me." He looks at me, expecting a reaction, but I just smile and exhale heavily. "Actually," he says turning his attention back to the eggs, "back when all of my family was alive, my mom would make Sunday breakfast early in the morning for my whole family." He walked over to the cabinet and took out three plates. "I would hear her wake up and," he walks back over to the pan, turning off the stove and scooping the eggs onto the plates, "I would watch her make eggs, pancakes, sausage, and bacon. She would basically make whatever anyone wanted." He held out one of the plate for me to take, "That's how I learned to cook."

He walked over to the island, taking a seat across from Isaac, tossing Isaac's plate to him on the countertop. I walked over to them and sat down next to Derek, setting my plate down on the tabletop. I realize something was missing, so I get back up, walking over to his fridge. I open it up and stick my head inside.

"What are you looking for, babe?" I hear Derek ask from across the room.

"Ketchup."

"Ew, who eats ketchup on their eggs?" asks Isaac.

"Me. My dad's whole side of the family does. My grandpa taught me."

"Lena, these eggs are so good, they don't need ketchup to flavor them. My mother was a master in the kitchen," Derek says. He pats the chair next to him, signaling me to come back and eat.

I reluctantly close the fridge behind me and walk back over to my stool. I look at Derek, my brow line furrowed, but he just smirks at me. I scoop up a fork-full of eggs and stick them in my mouth. I chewed. They were good. Actually, they were more than good, they were amazing. Derek raises his eyebrows, waiting for a response. I smile at him, my mouth full of egg and give him the thumbs up.

We all finish our breakfast. Isaac leaves for his lacrosse conditioning, leaving the whole apartment to Derek and me. We sit down on the couch, I stretch my legs out over his lap and he gently glides his fingers over my legs. We sit like this is silence for awhile. Then Derek says, "So last night, when we were… you know… I found that you have a flat spot on the back of your head. What's that about? Did you bash your head in when you were younger?" I throw my head back in laughter. "What?" he asks.

"I didn't bash my head in when I was younger," I say through the giggles, "I was born like that! I'm pretty sure it's genetic. Most of my family on my mom's side have that flat spot."

"Interesting…," he says actually sounding intrigued. "Are there any other physically quirks you want to tell me about?"

"Oh you know how you turn into a werewolf?"

"Yeah…?"

"I turn into a unicorn on the nights of the full eclipse," I start laughing because I'm just so funny.

"Alright," he says, smiling at me, "no need to be sarcastic."

"I actually do have a few more physical quirks if you want to hear," he nods his head. I hold out my left hand, pointing just above my fourth knuckle, "Here is where I accidentally clamped my hand in my straightener when I was in eighth grade. Then, to make matters worse, I fell off a little motor scooter and scraped off the burn." Derek cringed a little and I rubbed the little spot, remembering the pain. I pull my left hand in and show him my right hand pointer finger. "Here is my birthmark." I show him the little red mark on the inside of my finger that stretches halfway down.

He takes it and inspects it. "This is so weird. It's… red!"

I laugh a bit, "I am aware it's red." I pull in that hand, then I take the same finger and point to my upper right thigh to a little dent. "This is a little dent I got when I was first born when the nurse gave me a shot. I don't know why it's still there, but it is." Derek runs his finger over the dent, confused at first by it, then he looks up at me and smiles. Then, I hold up my right foot. "This scar," I say pointing to a freshly new scar, a perfectly white peanut-shaped dot, "is from a bicycle accident." Derek raises his eyebrows in question. "Long story short, my cousin does not know how to ride a bike."

"Geez, you get beat up a lot. Are there anymore?"

"Actually…"

"Oh my goodness, Lena!"

"I can't help it that there's just a huge sign on my forehead saying, 'Please beat me up! I need more scars and stuff!'" Derek laughs at this and I do too because his laugh is just so adorable. I don't know why he doesn't laugh more often. "So this bump," I say running my index finger over my forehead, "is from when Bella Luca accidentally hit me in the head when I was little with a golf club." Derek looked surprised. "She just learned how to swing properly and was showing my family and I stupidly stood behind her and WHACK! I was down."

"It's these times that I'm glad I am a werewolf and I can't get scars or anything like that," he says gesturing with his head to my entire body.

"I like my physical quirks as you put them. They define who I am. They're like pulling out the picture book without the pictures, you know?"

"Not really…"

"I guess it's kind of hard to understand if you don't have anything to remind you of the bad times that you can laugh about now."

It was times like these when I, just human, couldn't really connect with my boyfriend, a werewolf. It made me a little sad to have this gap between us and I could feel that he felt the same way.


	16. Chapter 16

Derek

Lena went back to her house around noon, she thought Bella Luca would be worried since she wasn't home last night. Since neither Isaac nor Lena were around, I wanted to go somewhere by myself. I walked out of my building, nodding to the doorman as I left, got into my car, and left. I headed across town.

I arrived at my old house after 20 minutes of driving. I got out of the car and just stood there, looking at the burnt house, my hand on the top of the car door. The earliest memory I have of being in this house was when I was around ten-years-old. The house was still bright blue, my parents and aunts and uncles were sitting on the porch, laughing and talking, while my sisters, cousins, and I were playing hide and seek. Only we would have to smell each other out, which really stank for some of my non-werewolf cousins… My grandmother would be in the kitchen, yelling out the window what everyone wanted for dinner. Those were some of the best times of my life. Everything is different now.

I close my car door and walked over to the spot where I buried Laura. Even though she was dug up and was taken away, I still feel her presence at this spot. "Hi Laura," I begin, drawing circles in the dirt. "I just wanted to come and ask you for your advice… You were always so wise with your advice. I've been dating this girl, her name is Carolena Perrini, for a while now and I think I may be falling in love with her. But the thing is, I've only known her for a few months and I feel like if I told her that, that she would just run in the opposite direction. She was really accepting about me being a werewolf and all, which is great because as you know, Kate Argent was obviously not okay with that." I imagined Laura laughing a little at that part. "Lena—which is what she goes by—is just so different from anyone I've ever known. Ever. And I just want to know if I should tell her I love her. I heard her say she loved me the other day, but what if she isn't ready to hear me say it or she isn't ready to say it to my face?" I was silent for a few minutes, waiting for an answer from her. "I guess you're saying I should tell her." I waited, still nothing. "I miss you, Laura. I miss you more than anything in this world. We lived through the grief after the fire, we supported each other. And I never should have left because I left you here alone. An alpha, alone, with no pack. You were the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. I left you and you died while I was gone. Everything is my fault. I'm sorry," I say tears coming down my face, "I'm so sorry, Laura, I really am."

_Derek, it's okay. It's not your fault for what happened to me._

I stand up and take a look around, the only sound was the wind blowing through the trees. _There is no one at fault for my death or our family's death. Well Kate Argent for our family dying, but no one to blame for me._

"Laura?"

_It's me, baby brother. And if you think you love this girl, tell her. She accepts you and all of you, not just your human side. That is very rare to find. Tell her._

"Laura I have so many questions for you!"

_The time will come where I will answer those, but for now_, the wind blew around me, _just tell the girl you love her. Tell her. Tell her._

"Tell her I love her."

I ran to my car, fumbling for my keys, scratching the paint job getting the key in the hole. I quickly get in and drive away. I pull into her driveway, run up her porch stairs, and knock frantically on her door. The front door opens and I see Bella Luca standing there.

"Derek?"

"Bella Luca," I take a step back, realizing I was a few inches away from her.

"I'm assuming you're here for Lena?" She arches an eyebrow at me. Even though she's only 3 years older than I am, she intimidated me.

I gulped a little, "Uh, yes. I have to tell her something." I take a step towards the door, but Bella Luca side steps, blocking my way.

"She's being punished for being at your house last night, without my knowledge."

I step back again. "I apologize about that, she was just exhausted from helping us move into our new apartment."

"Us?"

"Isaac and me. She helped us move in for the past few days. We really needed the help and didn't want a moving company because they somehow always manage to break the most valuable things."

Bella Luca pursed her lips, thinking about this, "Well, even though she was just helping, she should have called me. Sorry Derek, but I have to in force rules in this house. You may see her next week." Bella Luca went back inside, closing the door on me. I walked off of their porch, got in my car, and left. So much for professing my love to her.


	17. Chapter 17

Stiles

Bella Luca called me and told me to come over immediately and that something was wrong with Lena. So, naturally, as any hormonal teenage boy in love with his childhood best friend would do, I ran to my jeep and drove like a madman to Lena's house. I whip into her driveway and run up the stairs, knocking fiercely at the door. Bella Luca swings open the door. "Thank god you came!" she says. She pulls me by my shirt inside.

"What's wrong with Lena?" I ask, frantically looking around for her.

Bella Luca comes closer to me and whispers, "I think she slept with Derek last night." My face went white, my fingers and toes turned numb, and my heart dropped into my stomach. Bella Luca continued, "She didn't come home last night. She just got home about an hour and a half ago. Then Derek came over to see her and I had to slam the door in his face. I didn't feel too bad for him though."

I could barely say anything to this. At all. But I manage to muster, "Why am I here then?"

"I want you to talk some sense into her. She's dating a man much older than her!" _that's the least of your problems, he is a werewolf after all_. "I think she's over her head and she won't listen to me! Stiles," she grabs my shoulders, "you're her best friend and she loves you," _yeah, friend-zoned love_, "and she trusts you and just talk to her please?" I nod. Bella Luca hugs me tightly, "Thank you," she says, her voice muffled by my shirt.

I walk up the stairs and knock on Lena's door. "Go away, Bella Luca I told you I don't want to talk to you!" Lena yells. Even though she's behind the big wooden door, I can hear her clear as day, she has some good lungs on her.

"It's me," I say, audible enough for her to hear me, but not quite as loud as she was.

She opens her door and sticks her head out, her face confused. She looks so cute with her nose and eyebrows scrunched up. "Stiles? Stiles, what are you doing here?"

"May I come in?" avoiding her question. She nods, pulling her door open, letting me in. I walk in and she closes the door behind me, then lays down on her bed, grabbing one of her worn out teddy bears she held when she was upset. I realize it's the one I gave her for her fifth birthday, it was pink with a pink satin bow around its neck. Now though, the satin was worn down and the pink faded to a peach color. It was well loved.

"So, Bella Luca told me about you and Derek," I say, starting the conversation.

"I _hate_ her. God! She won't let me live my own life! Who cares if I slept with him?" She sits up on her bed now, her body being propped up by her left arm.

"Well she does. I do."

"Well you didn't care much when I slept with you! As I recall, you were overjoyed! I sure as hell regret sleeping with you than Derek!" I looked down at my hands and fiddle with my fingers. She takes a breath, "I'm sorry, Stiles. That was a little too far to go." She reaches for my hand, "I don't regret anything. I just mean, it was stupid of us wasting our virginity on someone we don't love, don't you think?"

I turn away from her. "No," I say almost quietly enough for no one to hear.

"What?"

"I said, 'no.'" I look at her now, "Carolena Giovanna Perrini, I love you." She retracts her hand that was still resting on mine and her eyes widen. "Do I need to say it again?"

"No, please don't." She looks frozen, then softens a bit when she says, "Stiles, I'm in love with Derek."

"Don't you think I already know that? Let me tell you some fantastic things about Derek Hale that might change your mind about him."

"Stiles, please don't do—"

"1) He's a freaking werewolf."

"I know that."

"2) He killed his uncle."

"Know that too."

"3) He's turned 3 kids at our school into werewolves."

"I knew… Wait, what?"

"You didn't know that one?"

"Um no…? I thought you were born a werewolf?"

"Nope, you can get turned into one with a bite from an alpha and—"

"Derek is an alpha…," she finishes for me.

"Yes."

"He's never told me about this 'bite' before."

"Maybe he doesn't want you to understand the things he does," I was aware I was pushing her buttons, getting her irritated at Derek, but I couldn't help it. I love her. But that's no excuse, Stiles!

She stares off into the distance, "Stiles, you should probably leave now."

"But I was supposed to knock some—"

She shifts her gaze to me, her eyes cold as she says, "Leave. Now."

I get up and walk out, her eyes following me. Once I get outside of her room, she slams the door on me, making it hit my back. I slide down the door, running my fingers through my hair. I was upset because I made Lena upset. All because of Derek Hale. Derek Hale. He makes trouble even when he isn't there to do it. I am still sitting on the ground, back against Lena's bedroom door, and begin to cry. I told her I love her and she just brushed it off like this happened on a daily basis. How I wish to be her teddy bear right now.


	18. Chapter 18

Lena

I leaned my ear up against my door, listening for Stiles's fading footsteps down the hallway, but I didn't hear anything. Then, there was a thud, as if something heavy landed on the ground. I was about to open my door to see what it was, but then I hear muffled sobs. Stiles. My god, Stiles is crying. I've never seen him cry. "Stiles?" I ask through the door. I hear sniffling and then him rising and leaving. I open up the door and catch a glimpse of him walking down the stairs. I felt bad for him, but what else could I do? I can't decide who I love.

After Stiles had left, I remember what he told me about the bite. Bella Luca, being the oblivious person she is, forgot to take my phone away, so I called Derek. The phone rang a few times before he finally picked up. "Hello?"

"Derek."

"Lena! You're sister said you were grounded?"

I was taken a little aback by this. "You talked to my sister?"

There was a pause on his line, "Yeah, I um, I came to your house. I wanted to tell you something in person, but I am just going to have to wait until next week. Is there something you called me for?"

"Oh, yeah," I almost forgot what I wanted to talk about, "Stiles came over today."

"You are allowed to see _him_, but not _me_?"

"Bella Luca called him over to talk to me about you. Anyways, he told me about 'The Bite.' Why did you never tell me about this bite before?" Another pause. "Derek?"

"Um, well…"

"Derek, if I was a werewolf it could basically cure my anxiety! I could protect myself and even if I got hurt, I could heal!"

"Lena it's not that simple."

"What makes it complicated then?"

"Well, first off, The Bite either turns you or kills you. I can't risk losing you to something that could possibly cure your anxiety. And then secondly, there are hunters. Mr. Argent? Yeah, he's one of them. Allison nearly killed my pack and me as well. She basically caused Boyd and Erica to go missing." I didn't know what to say to this, so I didn't say anything. "Lena, it's dangerous out there. Even Stiles who isn't even a werewolf gets sucked into this because he knows so much. I am trying to protect you."

"I don't need protecting," my voice sounds odd to me, more forceful than it normally is.

"Lena I just don't want to lose you over something I did. It would kill me inside. Don't you understand? You are my only family. You and Isaac. That's all I have. I _can't_ lose you."

"So you just expect me to sit around twiddling my thumbs until you come back from fighting all of these evil things in Beacon Hills? I want to help you. I want to understand the things you do then maybe…," my voice trails off. I didn't want to finish my sentence.

"Then maybe what?"

"Then maybe we could understand each other more and be able to love on a different and better level than we do now."

Pause. "You just said love."

"That's right, Derek. I love you and I want to be able to understand where you're coming from and I want to be able to help you and I just… I just—"

"I love you too."

"What?"

"Surprisingly, it's not impossible for me to love someone."

"Derek…"

"Lena, why don't you get some rest. I'll see you in a week."

"Say it again."

"I love you."

"I love you too, Derek." He hangs up. "I love you too."

That week went on for what seemed like forever. I missed Derek. All I could do was stay in my house and talk to Allison and Lydia on my phone. I did try and call Derek a few times, but he never picked up. He would text me right after saying, "I must respect your sister's wishes." God, why did he have to be so 18th century?


	19. Chapter 19

Derek

Lena came over the day she—as she puts it—was released from Hell. I could sense she was mad at me for how I behaved over the week, ignoring her calls and texts after telling her I loved her. She walked into my apartment, swinging the big metal door open and dropping her purse down at her feet. I was watching TV with Isaac, and I immediately was afraid. "Derek Hale. You tell me you love me and then ignore my calls saying you wanted to respect Bella Luca's wishes? Oh and let's not forget how you never told me about The Bite and then refuse to change me like you changed Isaac!" I look at Isaac whose facial expression shows confusion as he looks from Lena to me and then back at Lena. Lena walks closer to us on the couch, "You have a lot of explaining to do."

Isaac looks at me, afraid of what's going on. "Um, I'm just going to leave," he says, inching his way off of the couch in the direction of the door.

"Oh no you're not." Lena grabs his shirt by the shoulder and shoves him back on the couch.

"I'm so scared," he whispers to me.

"I've never been so scared in my life and I've almost died like 5 times in my life," I whisper back to him.

"Now," Lena says, "you better start explaining."

"Lena, I didn't call you because I want Bella Luca to like me."

"Why do you need her approval?"

"Because she's your _family_. It's important to me that your family likes me and invites me in because… well you of all people should know best! Plus, I don't have any family so your family is mine." Isaac coughs from beside me. "Well I don't have any family, except for Isaac and he already likes you."

"What about Peter?"

"You don't want to meet Peter."

"If I meet Peter, I'll be willing to forget all of this."

"Lena—"

"Derek."

"Carolena, he killed my sister and about 5 other people. He's a total psycho!"

"I want to know your blood family. Isn't it important they accept me too?" She makes a pouty face at me.

"Lena—"

"I know, I know, you're protecting me. The funny thing is, you're actually not. You're sheltering me and how am I going to understand your life if you shelter me? Either I get to meet Peter and learn everything about your past, or I get The Bite."

"She's not asking for too much, Derek," Isaac says.

"Shut up, Isaac," I tell him, shooting a look.

"I agree with Isaac," Lena says, smiling at him.

I look at her for a little bit before answering, "Fine. You can meet Peter tonight. I'll invite him over for dinner." She smiles at me. "But Isaac is staying with us."

"What? Why?"

"I don't trust Peter."

"He's actually being quite reasonable, Lena," Isaac adds.

"Fine. I'm going home. I'll be back at 6 to eat."

Lena came back around 6:30 because she's always late to everything, and of course Peter had been complaining ever since 6:01 that she was late. So, when I opened the door, he yelled, "Look who decided to show up." Lena looks at me.

"This is why I didn't want you to meet him," I whisper, taking off Lena's jacket. I place it on the coat rack by the door, then placing my hand on the small of her back, I ease her into the light a little more. "Peter, this is Lena."

Peter rises from the table and walks over to us. He walks all around Lena, saying, "Her face looks like Laura's, but her body is petite like Cora's was." He looks at me when he gets in front of us again, "She's cute nonetheless." He looks at me, "I think it's a bit odd you're dating your sisters though, Derek." Lena being polite, flashes him a quick closed-mouth smile, but not looking up from the ground.

"How about we eat now," I say, leading Peter and Lena to the table.

I take a seat next to Peter, while Lena and Isaac sit across from us. The beginning of the dinner was awkward with a lot of tension in the air all directed at Peter, but either he didn't seem to notice or he just didn't care. "So, Lena," Peter says, "tell me a little bit about yourself."

Lena looks up, surprised she was addressed by Peter. She looks at me before answering, "Oh um…"

"I didn't mean to put you on the spot, dear, I just wanted to know who my little nephew is dating." He pinches my cheek and I pull away from him.

"You touch me one more time, and I will rip your throat out again," I say to him.

"Now Derek, I know your mother taught you to respect your elders."

"Don't talk about my mother."

"Okay, so much for family bonding time," Peter says rolling his eyes. He give his attention to Lena, "Anyways, Lena, you were saying?"

"Um, well the only non-distant family member of mine that is alive is my sister, Bella Luca."

"Beautiful Luke."

"Pardon?" Lena asks.

"Your sister's name translates to beautiful Luke in Italian."

Lena looks down at her plate and pokes her food with her fork. "She's uh… she's named after my dad, his name was Barnardo Luca and since most people in America think that any name ending in an A in a foreign language must be a girl's name, they named my sister Bella Luca." Peter nods. "But that's not really about me…" Peter shakes his head. "I was named after my mother's mother: Genevieve Carolina. I dance ballet most of the year. I played piano from when I was 5 to 8, but I wasn't good. I'm also a terrible cook," she looks at me, "Derek is much better than I ever will be."

"Interesting…," Peter says. Lena smiles a little. To me, Peter says, "I like her, but what ever happened to Stiles?"

Lena looks at me, confused and Isaac snorts, covering his mouth with his hand to hide his smile. "Peter," I say, "I can't stand Stiles."

"That's what made it so perfect though!"  
Lena arches her eyebrow at me. "Uncle Peter, Stiles and I weren't uh… together? He's just Scott's annoying friend."

"I'm only teasing you!" He ruffles my hair and I glare at him.

The dinner finally ends and we are bid farewell to Peter. Lena stays over for a while, but leaves around midnight so Bella Luca doesn't ground her again. I waited until I couldn't hear her car anymore and I left. I left to find Stiles.


	20. Chapter 20

Stiles

I'm sitting at my desk while on my computer, searching up "how to make a girl fall in love with you" when I hear a knock at my door. "Come in," I say without taking my eyes off the screen. I hear my door squeak open and someone take two steps inside my room. "Heyyy," I say turning around in my swivel desk chair. Then I see Derek Hale in my room, "Good god, Derek!" I have a little spaz attack in my chair and I clutch my chest. "Derek? What are you doing here!?" He doesn't look mad or angry, just kind of sad standing there. I stand up and offer him to sit on my bed. He sits down and looks up at me as I drag my desk chair over. I sit on it backwards so I can lean my elbows on the back.

"You're in love with Lena," he says simply, his eyes full of sadness.

"Well… uh… well who isn't is the real question?" I stutter a bit and my heart spikes a bit. He looks up at me. _Aw crap, he knows I'm lying_.

"You're lying," his eyes turn a bit harder. "You love her and Stiles, I'm afraid she might well, she might love you."

I cock an eyebrow at him and laugh a little. "Derek, she ran me out of her room when I told her my feelings because she loves you." _Why am I comforting Derek_? "In all the years I've known Carolena, she's never felt this way about anyone." I think back to the time when we slept together…

It was last year. We were sitting on my bed, just laughing and talking, just having a good time like we normally do when it's just the two of us. She looked good that night: her hair was in a high ponytail, a black t-shirt made her tan skin look even tanner, and she had on those funky purple running shorts that I always made fun of her for not only buying, but wearing. All of a sudden he put her hand on mine, saying, "Stiles," I looked up into her deep brown eyes and she looked into mine, "we are both seventeen-year-old virgins and why? We are both attractive and funny and nice and smart and yet, we've never done it with anyone. I guess no one can compare to our superior status." She winked at me here, and chills went up my spine, reaching the bottom of my hair line. "We've known each other for so long and… I don't know. I guess if I want to lose my virginity to someone, it would be you. Stiles, you're always there for me and I know you always will be and you're funny, kind, smart, and you're also semi attractive I guess…"

"You guess?" I say cutting in.

"Don't push it," she says, a grin creeping across her face. "Plus," she leans in and whispers this next part, "your dad is gone for the night." She pulls back so I could see her. She was waiting for my approval.

She was controlling, but gentle. She somehow knew how to please me while I just fumbled, grabbing the wrong places, kissing the wrong spots, but she just smiled and corrected me. Once we were finished, we just laid in my bed, intertwined in each other's naked bodies under my Toy Story sheets I got for my 7th birthday. She traced my hairline with her finger, gently brushing her nail across my skin. She kissed me again, then said, "Stiles, I've never felt this way before."

"What way?" I asked her.

"Just, so safe. With you. I've never felt this way about anyone in my life and I never want this moment to end."

I kissed her saying, "Neither do I."

"She hasn't?" Derek asked, snapping my out of my daydream.

I look down at my hands and start to play with my fingers, something I always have done when I don't want to answer a tough question, "No, she hasn't." I think back to those words she told me: _Just, so safe. With you. I've never felt this way about anyone in my life and I never want this moment to end_. "Trust me," I look deep into his eyes, "I would know."

There was a moment of silence, then Derek says, "Stiles, can I ask you to do something?"

"Depends. What do you need done?"

"You rejected The Bite when Peter offered it to you. I want you to tell Lena why you did that."

"And why do you need me to do this?"

"Stiles, she trusts you more than anyone else," he pauses and looks down at his shoes, "even more than me. I just don't want her thinking being a werewolf is all fun and games and that we never get hurt because all we do is _get hurt_."

I nod because I knew what he meant by this. "I'll talk to her."

Derek gets up and walks to the door. "Thank you," is all he says and then disappears. I run my hands through my hair. _God Stiles, you just keep making this hole of feelings deeper and deeper. Soon you're not going to be able to get out._ I sit down on my bed, grabbing my phone out of my pocket and text Lena saying, "Come to my house. I need to talk with you about something." I drop my phone into my covers, only then realizing that my sheets were Toy Story.


	21. Chapter 21

Lena

My phone buzzes and it's a text from Stiles. He wants me to come over. I didn't want to, but I though he deserved seeing me since he last time we talked I kind of slammed the door in his face and made him cry. I grabbed Bella Luca's keys and drove our old Chevy blazer to Stiles's house. I got out, closing the car door behind me and just looked up at his bedroom window, where I can see him pacing and making hand motions. I assume he's talking to himself. I take a breath, a bit nervous for what he needs to talk to me about, but I go and knock on his front door. Sherriff Stilinski opens it, surprised to see me standing there. "Lena!" he says, "well isn't this a pleasant surprise. I imagine you're here for Stiles?" I nod. "He's up in his room. I'm leaving for work now, so you two don't do anything stupid, okay?"

I smile at him. "Okay, we won't," I say thinking to last year when he was gone. My heart grew heavy in my chest.

I walked inside, closing the door quietly behind me. I walked up their stairs and at the top turned the corner to find myself right in front of Stiles's room. I could hear him talking to himself, but the words were too muffled by the door to get anything from what he was saying. I raise my hand, taking another deep breath before knocking on the door. "Stiles?" I call. I hear some shuffling around before he opens the door, sticking his head out.

"Hey Lena!"

"You wanted to talk to me about something?" All of a sudden I felt really sad. I keep thinking about how the last time we were together he cried. I just felt so guilty.

"Yeah, yeah, I did. Um, uh, come in." He pushes the door open wider so I could get past him. I pass him and smile. I take a seat on his bed, noticing the sheets.

"Nice," I say nodding my head at Buzz Lightyear and Woody draping their arms on each others' shoulders on his covers. I look up at him, saying, "Toy Story sheets are sexy." He blushes and sits down in his desk chair, which for some reason was already next to the bed. "So are we going to talk or admire your lovely taste of bed attire?" I smile at him and he smiles back.

"Oh, yeah. Um, Derek came by yesterday around midnight."

"Derek came by? What for?"

He rubbed his forehead, something he does when he doesn't want to answer something. "He uh… he wanted me to talk to you about the time I turned down The Bite and why I did it." I roll my eyes. "He just wants you to know the downsides."

"Alright, but I'm only listening because it's you."

His eyebrows go up a little bit and he says, "Okay! So last year, well first off, remember all those random killings?" I shake my head yes. "Well that was Peter, Derek's uncle. He was also the one who attacked Lydia. That night at the formal, I kind of went missing in a way. I just kind of disappeared, remember?" I nod again. "Well Peter took me to help him find Derek. Long story short, Derek was being held captive by Kate Argent in his basement. So, I was helping Peter against my will and for my help, he offered me The Bite. I turned it down, you know why?" I shook my head no this time. "Because Scott, as you know, is a werewolf and I was there from the start. I remember how confused he was when he shifted, I was there on the full moon. That was a terrible experience. I had to handcuff him to the radiator in his room and it was so much for me to take I couldn't stay in the room with him, instead I cried in the hallway. He was calling my name because he was in so much pain and I couldn't stop it. Do you know how that feels to love someone and not be able to take their pain away?" My eyes were wide as I subtly shook my head no. "It's terrible. He ended up getting away, but his wrists looked like hell. They were all red and cut up and bloody because he went mad. And then I was the one who got attacked every time his heart rate reached over a certain number. I was the one who had to help him control his heart rate. It was so much for him to handle, and it still is. It's just hard to try and protect everyone. I couldn't do it."

I pause, I didn't know how to answer to that. "Maybe I can do it."

"Lena," he takes my hand in his, "I've known you for most of my life and I know you're so hard-headed, but you can't put yourself and the ones you love at risk, that's just stupid. Think of Bella Luca if you died from The Bite. Who would she have? Hm? Lena, you can't just think of yourself all the time, and I know you don't, but Derek's making the right decision not giving you The Bite." He pauses for a while, trying to muster up the courage to say something. He runs his fingers that aren't wrapped around mine through his hair. "Lena, quite frankly, I don't know what I would do if you died."

"Who says I'm going to die?"

"You don't even want to know how many times Scott has almost died in the past two years. And let's not even try to _imagine_ how many times Derek has barely escaped death! I mean even I have come close to dying and I'm not even a werewolf. It's… it's just better to stay out of all of this."

I couldn't believe even Stiles was telling me to stay out of all of this. I look at him, "I just love Derek so much and I just want to help him."

"Lena, he's lost so many people in his life that I think the best way to help him is by just not even being involved in what he is involved in."

"Okay."

"What?"

"Okay. You've changed my mind. I'm not going to get The Bite, but only because of Derek. He's had so much pain in his life, I don't want to be the cause of any more." We just sit there, his hand still holding mine, before I get up. "I should probably go. Bella Luca is going to need the car to go to work." I walk over to him and kiss him on the cheek. "I'm sorry about how I treated you the last time I saw you. That was just unacceptable."

"Lena, it's okay, I understand."

I smile at him and walk out. Once I'm outside the doorway of his room, I look back at him. He's just standing there, watching me go. A smile creeps across his face and I turn and leave.


	22. Chapter 22

Derek

There's a knock at my door, I look at Isaac, because I sure wasn't expecting anyone. "Are you going to get that?" I ask him. He gets up from the stool in the kitchen and puts down his book and he starts to walk towards the door. I hear the door scrape the floor as it opens.

"Oh, hey, Lena," I hear him say, and I begin to pay attention, "what are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to talk to your alpha."

"Derek," Isaac says, turning his head in my direction, "your girlfriend is here to see you."

Lena pops her head inside and looks at me. "Well don't just let her stand there." Isaac steps back, letting Lena have enough room to come in. She walks over to the couch, where I'm sitting, and gives me a peck on my cheek. She sits down next to me. We just look at each other for a little bit and I noticed she was actually wearing some makeup. "You look nice today. Are you wearing makeup?"

She touches her skin, "Uh, yeah." The air felt awkward and I didn't know how to react to it. "I went to see Stiles today, so I figured…"

"Oh. I get it, you have to look good for Stiles, but not me." As soon as it came out of my mouth I realized how jealous and ass-like I sound. She squeezes her eyebrows together. "Sorry, Lena, I didn't mean it like that."

"Okay, well whatever. I thought I would come over and tell you that I spoke to Stiles about why not to get The Bite. I realize I was being selfish in wanting it. I never knew how it would affect everyone else. I just wanted to be like you and Isaac." She nods her head over to Isaac, who is sitting on the stool. I think of Paige at this time. She was young. I wanted her to be like me, afraid she would not have accepted me otherwise. Now it's the other way around. I don't want to lose Lena the same way I lost Paige.

"Thank you, Lena. You really have no idea how much that means to me."

"Derek, I just… I just want you to keep in mind that if you do decide that there will be a day that you would like to give me The Bite, I'll be ready for it."

"I'll keep that in mind, but if I were you, I wouldn't get my hopes up."

She rolls her eyes and says, "If you won't give it to me sometime in the future, then there are other alphas that would be glad to have another member to their pack."

"Exactly, Lena!" I hear my voice rise, "You would be a part of _their_ pack, not _mine_. You and I would most likely not get along."

She exhales. "Okay, maybe we just need some time apart right now." She stands up from the couch, "I'm just going to go home and we'll see how things are in the morning, okay?"

As she begins to cross out into the hallway, outside my apartment, I yell out to her, "Wait!" She turns around and glares at me. "I need to tell you the whole story behind why I can't give you The Bite."

She shifts her weight and says, "Do you mean, won't?"

"No," I reply, "I mean _can't_."


	23. Chapter 23

Lena

Derek takes me up the stairs to his room and we sit down on the bed. Derek looks at the ground, not saying anything. Even though I'm not a werewolf, I can sense that he's sad. "What's the story you need to tell me?"

He look up at me and gives me that neglected puppy look he only gets when there's something excruciatingly painful he has to say. He takes a shaky breath in and then out. "When I was a sophomore in high school, I was in love with this girl named Paige."

" Seriously, you're bringing up old girlfriends now? This is supposed to make me understand why you _can't_ give me The Bite?"

He glares at me. "Anyways, she was my first love, but I couldn't tell her about me—about who I am. She was perfect for me—so my uncle Peter said. He brainwashed me to give her The Bite instead of telling her who I was. I was afraid of her accepting me. Since I was only a beta at the time, I, myself, could not give her The Bite. So Peter found an alpha, who I guess just lost a member of his own pack, to give her it." He started to choke up a bit. "I was in the building when the alpha attacked her. She was screaming and trying to get away and I was completely helpless. I let this happen. I knew what was going to happen. I took her to the basement of my old home to let her die. It was there, in my arms, she told me she knew what I was. She told me she loved me. She didn't want to bear the pain anymore, so she told me to end it. It was then, when I respected her last wish." He was looking down again and a tear fell onto his lap.

I lifted his chin and looked into his eyes saying, "Derek, it's okay."

"No, it's not okay. She didn't want The Bite and I gave it to her. She accepted me and I killed her. You might not know this, but before I was an alpha, my eyes were blue, like Peter's. Do you know why that is?" I shook my head no. "Some people believe that it's because of a wolf that died or isn't completely living and that is true… somewhat. The real reason is when a beta, or alpha that turns into a beta, kills an innocent person, their eyes change to show it. When I put Paige to rest, a piece of me died that day, and I've never been the same." He takes my hands in his. "But now, I'm starting to figure out who I was back then because of you and I can't lose you. Everyone in my life gets hurt and if I can keep one person, just _one_ person that I care about out of harm's way, then I will be happy for the rest of my life."

There was a bit of silence, then I say, "I now understand, and I know how hard that is for you to tell me, granted I've never killed one of my boyfriends—" He shoots me a look. "Too soon for joking I guess, but I feel your pain. It must have taken everything you had and more to tell me that—"

"I've never told anyone else that story."

I can't say anything else. I just don't know what to say. Instead of saying anything, I just plant my lips onto his and kiss him. I want him to feel how sorry I am. I want him to feel how much I love him and respect him. I want him to feel everything I need him to feel. His face is wet from crying as I smooth my hands over his face. I start to cry as well, not because I'm sad, but because I know how much he must love me to tell me that, to try and save me from this hell he calls his life. "I love you," I whisper, our lips barely parting, "I love you so much." The words go into his mouth. "You will never know just how much I love you."

"I think I have a pretty good idea," he says. He place his hand on my waist and pulls me on top of him on the bed. We continue to kiss and go a little further, the whole time, the both of us whisper, "I love you," to the other. I feel as if this is the first time we have both truly meant it.


	24. Chapter 24

Derek

Once we got serious at the beginning of the summer, Lena decided to take me as her plus one to her cousin, Josephine's (better known as Josie according to Lena), wedding. "It would be a great chance to introduce you to my extended family!" she told me.

"Lena, why is it so important that I meet them as well? We would only be dating for a few months when I meet them. Don't you think it would be better for me to meet them in like a year or something?" I asked her.

"Derek," she giggled, clutching my bicep, "I think you'll be fine! Everyone will love you! Plus, Josie's mom was the one who took care of Bella Luca and me before Bella Luca turned eighteen. It's important that I go and I want to go with you!"

I looked at her, studying her face. She was happy, her smile was big and her eyes were bright and squinted, the way they get when she's really happy. I smiled at her and said, "Alright, we'll go."

She got up from the bed and did that little jump/clap thing girls do when they're happy. She leaned over and kissed my forehead. She said she would talk to me later about it and then left for her house.

Now it's a week before the wedding. She's calling me every day about it. About how happy she is that I'm going. About how I need to find a suit to wear because no matter how hot I look in my tight gray and black t-shirts, they are a bit too casual for a formal event like a wedding. About how she's a little nervous for me since everyone is meeting me for the first time. About how her recent fittings for her bridesmaid dress, that is apparently ugly and is made out of taffeta. Today, she comes over to my house instead of calling. I open the door and she doesn't even greet me, instead she just walks past me, already talking.

"So," she says, waving her arms around (she swears she talks with her hands because she's Italian, but I think it's an excuse), "I was thinking that today we would go rent a suit for you to wear. I was just going to let you find your own, but then I kept thinking about how you'd probably rent the ugliest and cheapest suit and so I decided against that."

"Well hello to you too, Lena."

She perks up, "Oh, I'm sorry, babe. I just have so much on my mind!" She comes over and kisses me on the lips. Then she continues talking. "The wedding is in less than two weeks and it's your big debut for my family and I just want it to go as smoothly as possible." She pauses. "This means so much to me," she says quietly. "I just want them to like you."

"As do I. Your family is my family," I tell her, trying to calm her down a bit. But truthfully, I was probably more nervous than she was. I've had Isaac helping me with practicing possible conversations and how to approach them.

She lets out a big sigh. "I think we both just need to relax… Right after we find you a suit." She grabs me hand and leads me to the beat up Chevy blazer she and Bella Luca share. She hops in the driver's seat, put the key in the ignition, looks at me, smiles deviously, and then starts to drive. My stomach gets all knotted up. I've never been in the car when Lena's driving and the fact that she's had her license for a little over a year, scares the crap out of me.

We arrive at the suit place and I couldn't wait to get out of that car. There is no way that Lena has an authentic driver's license. "Geez, Lena! How'd you get your license? Was the person grading you unaware of what was going on?"

"Hey," she says slamming her door, "I'm not _that_ bad!"

"Maybe, but you're not that _good_ either!"

She smiles at me as I open the store door, "I never said I was," and she walks right in.

Inside there are millions of jackets and pants and shirts and ties. I was a little overwhelmed, since I haven't exactly ever wore a suit. I mean, I should've wore one to my high school graduation, but my family kind of died in a fire. Lena though, she just walked to a sales clerk like she helps men rent suits every day. She chatted with him for a few minutes, while I just looked at ties, then she comes over, the sales clerk following closely behind her. "Derek, this is Harvey, he's going to help you, well, us, find you a nice suit."

Harvey sticks out his hand, "I'm Harvey, I'm pleased to meet you." Harvey looks familiar to me, but I just can't figure out where I've seen him. "Now," he says turning to Lena, "would you like him to have the same color scheme as the wedding, since you're a bridesmaid?"

"Oh! I didn't even know that was a possibility!" Lena and Harvey turn and walk away, while chatting happily about what colors were in the wedding and what would match my skin tone and hair color and what would make my eyes pop. I followed them like a puppy whose owners forgot about him.

An 2 and a half hours have past. Or in other words, I have tried on 8 different suit combinations. All of them have either been "too big," "too short," "too flashy," "not really the same color as the color scheme," and "that one is just plain ugly." Finally, we just rent a black sports jacket, black dress pants, and buy a white dress shirt and a lilac tie (to go with the very important color scheme).

I carry the bag out to the car and hang the bag up on one of those hooks that you put hangers with clothes and stuff on. "I'm really happy with the suit," Lena says and she climbs into the driver's seat.

"I'm just happy I don't have Harvey acting like one of those game show girls who model in front of those cars!" Lena tosses her head back and laughs. I imitate his voice and say, "Here we have Derek sporting a brown suit with a purple shirt and classic black tie. Turn around Derek so we can see how it sculpts your buttocks!"

Lena laughs hysterically and snorts a few times. When she finally catches her breath she says, "He never said 'sculpts your buttocks!'"

I laugh a bit, "Well he probably would have!"

"I just thought he reminded me of that English butler in _The Parent Trap_ with Lindsay Lohan!"

"That's who he looks like! God I was trying to figure that out the whole time!"

"When have you seen _The Parent Trap_?" Lena giggles.

I turn away from her and she stops laughing. "I used to watch it with Cora and Laura when we were younger. It was their favorite movie…"

"Oh. I'm sorry."

I look at her now. We were still in that parking space. "You couldn't have known, I never told you that before."

"I still feel bad."

I grab her hand, "Don't be."

"I love you, Derek Hale."

"I love you as well, Carolena Perrini."

With that, Lena drives back to my apartment, luckily without killing anyone in the process.


	25. Chapter 25

Lena

It's the day of Josie's wedding. It's early in the morning, around 6, and I'm at Derek's loft. I spent the night there last night so I could make sure everything was all ready for him before I had to leave to get hair and makeup and all that other wedding stuff. "Derek," I say, shoving his shoulder, "wake up! Today is the day! Today is the wedding!" Derek groans and rolls over so he doesn't face me. I roll my eyes, "Derek! Get! UP!" I shove him again and this time he rolls back over towards me. His eyes are half open and he has a sleepy grin on his face.

"Just imagine, people could be doing this same exact thing in a few years when we get married."

"Derek, I have a lot on my mind today and I don't need you freaking me out by saying our wedding. That's even more pressure than being a bridesmaid!"

"Sorry, just wanted you to think of the possibility of us getting married someday."

I pause. "You'd want to get married? To me?"

"Well, yeah. I love you, Lena."

I smile at him. "I love you too." I get up from the bed and Derek props himself onto his elbow. "I was thinking that we could go for an early morning swim in that little lake we found by your old house earlier this summer before I have to leave."

"That sounds refreshing. When do you want to go?"

"Sometime around 7, maybe? I'm hungry so I'm going to go and make some breakfast."

I begin to leave the room and then Derek yells after me, "We only have cereal!"

"Sounds good enough to me!" I yell from the top of the stairs.

I walk down the stairs and across the floor towards the kitchen. It was still kind of dark in the house, but some light was shedding through the windows and onto the floor, making cool designs. I am tired, but I can't really feel tired because I am so happy about everyone meeting Derek today. I pull out a box of Rice Crispies from the cupboard and pour it in a bowl. Then, I open the fridge, looking for milk. I finally find it near the back, hidden behind everything else. I pull it out and look at the expiration date, something I always do as a precaution, and the milk expired 3 weeks ago. I sigh and stick it back in the fridge because, unlike me, the boys can drink that milk and not get sick.

I pull out a stool from under the island and begin to eat my dry cereal. Once I'm finished, I get up and place my bowl in the sink when I hear Isaac and Derek coming down the stairs loudly and quickly. Isaac starts running for the door, but Derek catches my eye. He slows down and walks over to me. "Derek? What are you doing?" Isaac yells frantically. "We have to go!"

"Hold on!" Derek yells over his shoulder. "I'm sorry," he begins, "the alpha pack has been causing some problems and Peter called me and said to meet him somewhere."

"What does this mean?" I ask him, but I already knew. I just didn't want to accept it.

"I can't go to the wedding tonight."

"Derek, abbiamo un amore ansioso."

"Lena, I don't speak Spanish, can you just tell me that in English."

"That was Italian. And it means 'we have an anxious love.' I can't just sit around picking petals off of flowers asking myself, 'Is he going to come or is he not?'"

"I'm sorry, Lena, I really am." With that he bends down as kisses my forehead. I watch him run out of the loft with Isaac, the door closing shut behind them. I wanted to cry, but there was no time to cry. Instead, I walk out of the apartment, get in my car, and drive to the lake.

I get there and since I am in the privacy of the woods, secluded from the whole world, I didn't even bother to bring a swim suit, instead I strip down to my underwear. As I'm pulling off my shirt I hear, "Carolena?"

I scream and turn around, my arms caught in my shirt above my head. That's when I see a familiar face across the lake. "Stiles?" At first I'm confused of why he's here and how he knows about this place, but then I remember I'm in only my underwear. "Stiles!" I scream. I pull my shirt back over my head and stretch it out so It covers most of my panties. "Stiles, what are you doing here? How do you know about this place?" I was furious.

"What I want to know is," he giggles like a little boy who just discovered porn, "why you're stripping in the middle of the woods."

I look around and roll my eyes. "Well, I'm in the middle of the woods and I thought no one else knew about this place so I was safe."

"Interesting…"

"You didn't answer my questions."

"Well, I came here because I want to go swimming," he explains.

"At 7A.M.?"

"This is the best time to go swimming. No one is up yet and the water is nice and cold, just how I like it." He smiles at me and pulls of his shirt. Then, he dives into the water, bubbles come off his skin as he glides through the water. His head pops up and he's still smiling at me.

"Well, how did you find this place?"

"My mom took me here when I was little. She told me never to tell anyone about this place. I guess she knew she was sick and she told me when I could never see her again and I missed her to come here." He was now floating on his back.

"Were you missing her today?"

"I always miss her, but I don't come here every day. I just needed to feel her today. It's been an odd summer."

"Tell me about it." I decide since I did come here to swim, that I should do it before I have to meet Josie and the rest of the bridesmaids at 10 to get ready. I pull off my shirt and Stiles whistles at me. I shoot him a look and dive in. I come up for air. "Shit," I say, "I lost my underwear!" Stiles raises his eyebrows and his eye grow big. "Keep it in your pants, Stilinski."

"Aren't you being flirty today," he says with a sly smile on his face.

"I'm not being _flirty_, I'm being mad or sad or disappointed or—"

"Or confused?" he finishes for me.

"Yeah, or confused," I repeat.

"Did something happen?"

"Well, today is my cousin Josie's wedding and Derek was going to go as my plus one to meet all of my family, you know?" He nods even though he had no clue about the wedding or Derek meeting the rest of my family, he's so considerate. "But this morning he and Isaac run out of the house and he said he has to go and that the alpha pack is planning some evil scheme and he has to put a stop to it. So in conclusion, he can no longer attend to the wedding and now I don't have a plus one."

"Ouch," he says.

I take a deep sigh. "I was really happy that he was going to meet my family and everything and now he won't."

"How about I go with you to the wedding?" Stiles offers.

I laugh a little, then I look at his face: he's dead serious. "Oh Stiles, you're being serious?"

"Yes. You don't want to show up without a plus one do you? Plus I will promise you a night of fun!" He smiles that adorable goofy smile at me and I agree.

This is going to be one interesting wedding.


	26. Chapter 26

Lena

Continued

I make Stiles get close his eyes as I get my naked butt out of the water. I pull on my clothes and allowed him to open his eyes again. "So, be at St. Gregory Church at 5; that's when the wedding begins."

"Wait, we're not meeting up or something?"

"I'm in the wedding," I say smiling and swinging my arms.

"I'll keep my eye out for you then." He winks at me and I feel my cheeks turn hot. I'm blushing.

"Okay," I say touching my cheeks, trying to hide how red they are, "I have to go and get ready and stuff!"

I grab my shoes and run through the woods without even putting them on first. I get to the clearing where I parked and I double over, trying to catch my breath and trying to wrap my head around what just happened. I drop my butt on the ground and pull my knees up to my chest. Earlier this morning I was happily in bed with Derek, then I was angry with him, and then I invited Stiles to the wedding. To my cousin's wedding. And I blushed at him for winking at me. What kind of person am I? My supernatural boyfriend goes out and is trying to defeat this big, bag alpha pack to protect all of Beacon Hills and I basically just skinny dipped with the first guy I ever slept with. Not to mention I never told Derek that Stiles was the other guy I slept with. My stomach tightens and I feel as if I'm going to get sick. I get up and run over to a couple of bushes and open my mouth—nothing comes out. I stand there for a minute over the bushes, my mouth wide open, just waiting for something to come—maybe so I could get out of even going to the wedding—but nothing does.

I walk over to the car, get it, and put the key in the ignition. I sit in the seat with my hands on the steering wheel and just sit there, letting the car run. I didn't know what to do or where to go. I still had an hour before I had to pick up Bella Luca at home, but I couldn't go home just yet. Instead, I decide to go somewhere else.

I pull into the cemetery and look at the section signs for Section 24. I finally come across it and drive down the bumpy path that hasn't been paved in many years. I finally find their shared gravestone, underneath the random weeping willow. I park and get out. I hover over the slab of cement, looking at their names: Barnardo Luca Perrini and Angelica Maria Fabio-Perrini. Below their names the gravestone said: "Loving parents to Bella Luca and Carolena Perrini." So much of my life was wondering what they were like. What kind of parents they were. If they were stern or just wanted their kids to live freely. At different points in my life (when I started dating and other things) I wondered what their talks would have been like. I decide to sit down on the grass, wet from the morning's dew.

"Hello, parents," I begin. "I don't exactly know how to talk to parents, since the both of you died before I could really have any memories of you… Maybe I should be screaming at you like the kids on TV shows do. 'YOU'RE SO UNFAIR, I HATE YOU!'" I mock. I laugh a little at me being so funny. "I take it back, I don't really hate you. It is kind of unfair that the both of you left me at such a young age, though, but I don't hate you for it. It's not like you decided that day you were going to die. Look, I just needed someone to talk to. Josie's getting married today!" I thought my mom wound like hearing that, after all, Josie is her goddaughter. "I was going to bring my boyfriend, Derek, to meet everyone, but he's a werewolf and now he has to go kick some other werewolf pack's butt, so he cannot attend. Then, Stiles said he would go and I agreed and…" I take a deep breath "…I think I might be starting to like him?" I imagined my father giving me a look. "Don't give me that look! I'm just a teenage girl! My hormones are all over the place! I'm just going to go to the wedding and see Derek tomorrow and see how I feel." I finished talking to them. I really had nothing else to say. I lean forward and kiss their stone. "I love you both," I whisper. I get up and get back into the car.

I'm standing in front of Bella Luca, the maid-of-honor, as I clutch my purple and white flower bouquet with a death grip. I can hear the organist playing loudly even though the big wooden doors are shut. I feel a squeeze on my shoulder. I look back and Josie's there. "Don't be nervous," she says. "I'm the one who should be nervous. I'm making a life-long commitment!" I raise my eyebrows at her. "No, don't think I'm having second thoughts, I love Pete with all my heart, it's just, I've never had so many people looking at him and me as we profess our love for eternity! That's a long time."

"So it's about the time commitment…," I say, thinking aloud.

"When you get married," she says, giving me a high-and-mighty look, "you'll know what I mean."

She goes to back behind Bella Luca and I whisper to myself, "I already do." Then, the doors are pulled open for all the bridesmaids. The music comes into the small space and nearly makes me become def. I begin to walk down the aisle, everyone looking at me and so I force a smile onto my face and grip my flowers even tighter to make sure I don't drop them. Then, I see him, I see Stiles sitting in the pew, looking down at the program instead of the women walking right beside him. I laugh quietly to myself, but I keep my eyes on him, hoping he'll see me. Right before I pass him, his head pops up from the folded piece of paper. Our eyes meet and his mouth is open. I look down into my flowers to keep myself from laughing.

The wedding was beautiful, the bride, the groom, the flowers, it was perfect. But, the whole time I just looked at Stiles in the audience who would switch his attention between Josie and Pete and me. The first time he looked at me he mouthed, "Beautiful." I didn't know what he meant was beautiful. Me? Josie? The flowers? My dress? Josie's dress? So when we all processed out of the church at the end of the wedding, the first person I wanted to find was Stiles. I ran through the maze of people, pushing and shoving. I heard a few of my relatives tell me how pretty I am and how much I've grown as I passed them, but I didn't really care. Then, I found him, talking to Bella Luca.

"Stiles," I say, a little out of breath, "there you are!" Both Bella Luca and Stiles turn and look at me.

"I thought you were bringing Derek," Bella Luca says. "I'm very pleased that you actually brought Stiles instead!" She smiles at him and squeezes his shoulder and leaves. As she passes me, she kisses my cheek.

It was just Stiles and me left. "Lovely wedding," he says.

"Oh," my heart dropped, "you were talking about the wedding when you said, 'Beautiful.'?"

He takes my hand in his. "No," he kisses it, "I was talking about you." I smile at him and we make our way to the reception.

Stiles sat at a table with Bella Luca, Dave, and me and a few of our other cousins. Each spot had a name card and Stiles's said "Derek." He sat down and nodded towards it awkwardly. I just look at him, pull the name card away, and stuff it in my purse. "There," I say, "all better." It was a fun reception, good food, good music, a lot of dancing, and nice toasts. My family knew I was bringing my boyfriend and just assumed that Stiles was Derek, so every time someone said the loved Derek I just smiled and said he has that effect on people. Then, Josie came over.

"I would be delighted to come to your wedding," she says, surprising me because I didn't even notice she was there beside me.

"Pardon me?" I ask her.

She nods in the direction where Stiles is standing, talking to a few of my relatives at a table. "Derek is really hitting it off with everyone. Sweet boy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a wedding between you two!"

"Oh that's uh—" I begin, but Josie cuts me off.

"I'm thinking about trading Pete in for him. He's funny, and smart, and _cute_! Man is that boy attractive!"

"Josie!"

"Sorry," she winks at me and sit down in Stiles's empty seat next to me. "He's a keeper though."

"Um, Josie, that's not actually Derek. He couldn't come last minute. Something uh… something came up. It was urgent. So that is really my friend Stiles…"

"Oh, well I'm sorry sweetie. But in my opinion, there is no way Derek is better than Stiles over there, he's the total package! I think you're due for a trade in." With that Josie gets up and leaves, already striking up another conversation, leaving me to just stare at Stiles talking and making jokes to my family.

I am playing with some of the leftover peas on my plate when I feel someone's presence over me. I look up and there's Stiles, holding out his hand. His mouth is forming an adorable half smile at me. "Wanna dance?" he asks.

"I don't really feel like dancing…"

"Aw, Lena, don't be like Lydia! Don't be so depressed about your boyfriend that you won't even dance with me! I promised you a fun night and you're going to get it. So get off your butt and dance with me." I look him up and down with my eyes and take his hand and we dance to every single song together.

A slow song comes on and everyone gets paired up. I wrap my arms around Stiles's neck and his are not resting on my waist, but wrapped around it. He makes me feel so secure. I rest my head on his chest and close my eyes. I whisper, "Stiles Stilinski, I think I love you."


	27. Chapter 27

Stiles  
I drove Lena home from the reception since I had a curfew and she didn't want me to go. She said she was tired anyways and was getting a headache from the music. She's in the passenger seat in my car, leaning her head against the window glass. As we pass each street light, it illuminates the half of her face that I can see. I try to keep my eyes on the road as much as I can, but she looks gorgeous. She didn't look as perfect as she did during the wedding. Some of her hair was falling out, her eye makeup was a bit runny, and a bit of her strapless bra was showing because the dress had sagged. But somehow, some way, I was a lot more attracted to this imperfect Lena more than the perfect Lena.  
She sighs and lifts her head off of the window. "Something the matter?" I ask, glancing over at her.  
"No," she says. I pull into her driveway and cut the engine. She turns and smiles at me. "You were right, I did have fun tonight."  
"Good."  
"Um, when we were slow dancing, did you hear what I said?"  
"You said something? I couldn't hear anything, that music was so loud!" She giggles a little and pushes back a strand of hair that fell out of her bun. "What did you say?"  
"Oh, nothing, just something about how Josie and Pete were dancing." Lena was a good liar. Well, a good liar to those who don't know her like I do. Her giveaway is she folds her lips in and widens her eyes, making her look more innocent.  
"They are not the best dancers." I didn't want her to know that I knew she was lying and make her uncomfortable, so I just went with it.  
"Stiles," she sets her hand on mine, which was still resting on the gear stick, "Do you maybe want to come inside. I mean, you still have like a half an hour before you are expected to be home." There was something in her eyes, something very… seductive.  
"Lena," I put my hand on top of hers, "I would love to, but I don't think that's a good—" before I can finish, she plants her lips on mine. My body tenses and my eyes grow wide from the surprise attack, but then I relax and my eyes close as I kiss her back. She pulls back and I can barely see her face in the dark, but the corner of her mouth was turned up into a half smirk. "That was nice," I tell her dreamily.  
"Come inside then."  
"Lena, really, I want to, but you're dating Derek."  
She looks as if she's seen a ghost, her face goes pale and her breathing becomes almost nonexistent. "Derek," she repeats, "I forgot." She's close to tears now.  
"Oh, Lena, it's okay," I try to comfort her by reaching for her hand, but she pulls back.  
"I—I have to go." She opens the door and rushes out, but as she shuts the door she says, "Thank you Stiles!" and runs across her lawn, tripping over her dress. She fumbles putting the key in the lock, but gets in.  
After she closes the door, I continue to sit in her driveway, watching her turn the lights on and off as she enters and leaves rooms. I know I did the right thing by not going inside, but I felt as if I did the wrong thing. I couldn't let Lena sleep with me. I basically allowed her to cheat on Derek when she kissed me. But she kissed me. But then again, I let her, I kissed her back, I didn't push her away. I put the key in the ignition and back out of her driveway.  
I was a bit distracted as I drove, my guilt was killing me, but I had it easy compared to Lena. I am almost to my house when there's something in the road. Wait, not something, but someone. I got closer, but the person wouldn't move. I close my eyes and hit the brakes as hard as I can. I hear the person's footsteps come over to my window and I squeeze my eyes shut. "Get out of the car," he says, "or I will rip your throat out with my teeth." I open my eyes to find Derek Hale peering into my window.


End file.
